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“It: Welcome to Derry” has been renewed for Season 2 at HBO.
The show originally premiered on HBO Max on Oct. 26, 2025. It is based on Stephen King’s “It” novel and builds on the two-part “It” film reboot from 2017 and 2019.
The show serves as a prequel to the films.
The first season is mostly set in 1962 in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, and details earlier experiences the town’s residents had with the evil shape-shifting clown, Pennywise. Season 2 goes back in time to 1935 and takes place during the Great Depression. Per the logline, the story “centers on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror.” The Bradley Gang Massacre is one of the interludes in King’s original novel.
The series was developed for television by filmmakers Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, all of whom worked on the new “It” films. Brad Caleb Kane, who served as co-showrunner of Season 1 with Fuchs, is the sole showrunner of Season 2.
Casting has not yet been announced for Season 2, but the cast for Season 1 included Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe and Rudy Mancuso, with Bill Skarsgård reprising his role as Pennywise.
Andy Muschietti directed multiple episodes of the first season. He and Barbara Muschietti executive produce through their Double Dream production company along with Kane, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jamie Travis and Dhana Gilbert. It is produced by HBO and Warner Bros. Television.
Andy Muschietti told Variety earlier this month that a writers’ room had opened for Season 2, even though a renewal had not yet been formally announced. “There’s gonna be a lot of that depression-era hustling in the air in our characters. Everybody’s trying to get by and survive the circumstances. They are gonna do crazy things,” Muschietti said. “And of course, the social, cultural, horrible things that were happening in the era, too. We’re not going to skip those. [They are the] very center and the heart of our story.”
While Season 1 focused on the evil lurking underneath suburban comfort, Season 2 will have a different aesthetic. “In this case, on the surface, Derry is a graveyard almost. It’s a carcass of something because people are depleted, poor, tired, jobless, homeless. The kids don’t have a suburban, comforting life,” Muschietti said. “They’re in a very different situation. Some of them are orphans or runaways, and so the environment is pretty bleak. But there’s always the aspect of hope that is always there, burning, and it’s what keeps our new group going.”
The co-creator had previously told Variety of his three-season plan for “Welcome to Derry,” which would include an additional chapter on the book’s 1908-set interlude.
