HBO has officially renewed IT: Welcome to Derry for a second season, sending the Stephen King prequel further into Derry’s past. After setting its first season in 1962, the series will return to 1935 during the Great Depression and focus on the Bradley Gang massacre, another violent episode connected to the town and the entity that takes the form of Pennywise.
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Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti developed Welcome to Derry as an extension of the story explored in IT and IT Chapter Two. Season 1 took place 27 years before the events involving the Losers Club and followed a new group of children confronting the horror beneath Derry. Bill Skarsgård returned as Pennywise, connecting the television series directly to Muschietti’s films.
Season 2 continues the series’ backward chronology by shifting another 27 years into the past. The story takes place in 1935 and focuses on the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to purchase ammunition. Their visit leads to a bloody massacre and an encounter with the horror that has shaped the town for generations. Andy Muschietti previously identified the Bradley Gang story as the major event that would define this period of the series.
The first season already introduced references to the 1935 incident, preparing the series to examine the event in greater detail. The new timeline also changes the group of characters available to the story. HBO has not announced the Season 2 cast, leaving the extent of any returning appearances from the first season unclear.
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Muschietti has previously indicated that earlier generations of families already connected to the series could become part of the story as Welcome to Derry continues exploring the town’s past. That approach allows the series to trace the recurring influence of IT through different periods while connecting characters through family histories.
Brad Caleb Kane returns for Season 2 and will serve as sole showrunner. Kane worked on the first season alongside Jason Fuchs, while Andy and Barbara Muschietti remain involved with the series.
The creators have already discussed a wider structure for Welcome to Derry. Their plans extend beyond 1935 to another potential season set in 1908, continuing the pattern of traveling backward through Pennywise’s cycles. The Season 1 finale also changed the series’ understanding of IT and created further questions about how the entity experiences time, giving the backward chronology greater importance as the story develops.
With the renewal now official and the Bradley Gang massacre confirmed as its central event, the series has established where its next encounter with Pennywise will begin.
