The 2017 Fall Movie Preview is a snapshot of the films opening through early November, from "It" to "Thor: Ragnarok." Release dates and other details are subject to change.

Heath Ledger’s Joker is rooted in the real; you can break down the psychology. But Pennywise is not a real person.

The villain from Stephen King’s “It” terrified when he was left to childhood imaginations in the author’s 1986 doorstopper. And he is likely to send similar shudders after appearing, in the form of young Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, in the new Warner Bros. release opening Friday.

The 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, and the surrounding socio-political environment for women (and LGBTQ people), is the subject of the upcoming film “Battle of the Sexes,” starring Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs.

The Times spoke with Stone and King in a joint phone call about the match, its enduring impact on the fight for gender equality and what that looks like for the pay equity conversation currently going on in Hollywood.

After seeing Domhnall Gleeson’s 2017 filmography, no one can ever accuse him of being typecast. The 34-year-old Irish actor has four wildly different projects arriving this fall, each pushing Gleeson into new emotional territory.

“What I like about it is they’re all different sorts of films,” Gleeson says, sitting on a couch in the Soho Hotel in London. “I was reading an interview awhile ago with an actor I really like – I think it was Ryan Reynolds – and he said what he would like to do is to be in different genres of film and try to contribute to all of them. I think that’s a good model for a career.”

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“Thor: Ragnarok” might be the third title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe about the god of thunder, but this colorful deviation is no mere knockoff of its predecessors. The driving force behind the film's electric, retro-tinged changes is director Taika Waititi, best known for writing and directing the cult comedies "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" and "What We Do in the Shadows.”

“Ragnarok,” which opens Nov. 3, finds Thor imprisoned on the planet Sakaar, where he must fight to survive in the Grandmaster’s gladiator games. It’s the stuff of life and death. But Waititi didn’t lose sight of the fact that it’s still entertainment.

Never forget that we're making a cosmic adventure with a space Viking.

And while it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of Waititi’s aesthetic changes (Thor cut his hair!), perhaps the most exciting addition to the Marvel universe is the new cast members, who feel like they were plucked from a late night, Internet fan casting session. All your faves are in this flick. Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Rachel House and Cate Blanchett are all part of Waititi’s “space Viking” opus.

The movies listed — premiering at festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto — will likely comprise much of the meat of this year’s Oscar race. (Also factor in “Dunkirk,” Sundance standouts “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Big Sick” and “Mudbound,” and Cannes favorites “Wonderstruck” and “The Florida Project.”)Here’s a look at how the upcoming premieres stack up.

'Lady Bird'

Story: Rebellious Catholic high school girl (Saoirse Ronan) looks to escape Sacramento and move to New York in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut.

When he signed on to direct “Blade Runner 2049,” which hits theaters Oct. 6, Denis Villeneuve was determined to carry on the groundbreaking aesthetic of director Ridley Scott’s original 1982 neo-noir sci-fi thriller. At the same time, he didn’t want to create a mere replica — or replicant, as the case may be.

“The movie we did is deeply inspired by the first movie, but we tried not to become a pastiche or parody,” says the French Canadian director behind such films as “Arrival” and “Sicario.” “We used elements from the first movie with humility and tried to find a strength in them. But this movie has its own personality.”

Villeneuve walks us through his film, one scene at a time.

After Jeff Bauman watched “Stronger” for the first time, he wasn’t sure how he felt. He was hot, that was for certain; he couldn’t stop sweating. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

So that’s what he did. But when he woke up the following morning, he was still having trouble accepting the depiction of himself in the film. The movie, opening Sept. 22 and based on the 31-year-old’s own book about losing his legs as a result of the Boston Marathon bombing, didn’t shy away from Bauman’s struggles.

If you’re Richard Linklater, you can’t really top the past few years, which saw the release of such landmark work as “Boyhood” and “Before Midnight,” can you?

Yet here comes the 57-year-old with his low-key intimacies and profound digressions once more, prepared to take awards season by storm with “Last Flag Flying.” The Amazon/Lionsgate release, set to open Nov. 3, is a reunion movie that stars Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell as a group of Vietnam War veterans at the start of the second Iraq war — and contends with such big topics as aging, masculinity, friendship, responsibility and war.

“I like the idea of three guys getting back together and what that means. The relationships of old friends is always fascinating. Because of course it’s also about the long-term relation with yourself — how you’re the same and how you’re different.”

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In 20th Century Fox's romantic drama "The Mountain Between Us," Kate Winslet and Idris Elba star as two strangers stranded together atop a remote snow-covered mountain after a plane crash. The Times caught up with cinematographer Mandy Walker to discuss the challenges behind filming on a frozen mountaintop for the film from director Hany Abu-Assad.

"Hany wanted everything to be as realistic as possible. And the actors were so amazing. We really went to those locations and went up to between 10,000 and 11,000 feet, we got up in a helicopter, and it got down to -40 [degrees Celsius] sometimes. The challenge for me was that Hany also said, 'I want this film to be elegant and I want to move with the actors as they're traveling on their journey.' ”