HBO Makes It Official: Derry Gets a Second Season
Nearly a year after its October 2025 premiere, It: Welcome to Derry has been formally renewed for a second season at HBO — and the show is traveling deeper into the past than ever before. [1] The new season will be set in 1935, during the Great Depression, centering on one of the most vivid interludes in Stephen King's source novel: the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a crew of bank robbers who make the fatal mistake of stopping in Derry, Maine, to buy ammunition. [1][2]
The renewal caps what sources describe as a longer-than-usual development period. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the delay stemmed from the creative team essentially rebuilding the show from scratch — a new era, a new cast of characters, and a fundamentally different social landscape to excavate. [2]
A Different Derry, a Different Kind of Dread
Season 1 was set primarily in 1962 and used the quiet veneer of postwar American suburbia as a backdrop for Pennywise's horrors — the evil lurking beneath manicured lawns and comfortable routines. [1] Season 2 strips that comfort away entirely.
Series co-creator Andy Muschietti described the tonal shift in stark terms. "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," Muschietti told Variety. "The kids don't have a suburban, comforting life. They're in a very different situation. Some of them are orphans or runaways, and so the environment is pretty bleak." [1]
That bleakness, Muschietti suggested, is not without counterweight. "But there's always the aspect of hope that is always there, burning, and it's what keeps our new group going," he added. [1]
The Depression-era setting also opens the door to the social and cultural fault lines of the period. Muschietti was explicit that the show will not sidestep the uglier realities of 1930s America. "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," he said. [1]
Behind the Camera: A Showrunner Shift
One notable change heading into Season 2 is in the showrunner chair. Brad Caleb Kane, who co-ran Season 1 alongside Jason Fuchs, will serve as sole showrunner for the new season. [1][2] Fuchs, who was part of the original development team alongside Andy and Barbara Muschietti, steps back from that day-to-day role, though the Muschiettis remain on board as executive producers through their Double Dream production company. [1]
The rest of the producing team — Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jamie Travis, and Dhana Gilbert — also returns. [1][2] The series continues to be produced by HBO and Warner Bros. Television. [1]
The Bradley Gang and King's Source Material
The Bradley Gang massacre is not a new invention for the screen — it appears as one of the historical interludes woven through King's original 1986 novel, offering a glimpse of how Pennywise's cycle of violence has repeated across generations. [1] Adapting it as a full season allows the show to flesh out a chapter that the novel treats as a fragment, giving it the space to become its own self-contained story while remaining tethered to the larger mythology.
The official logline frames the premise with deliberate menace: the season "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." [2]
Bill Skarsgård reprised his role as Pennywise in Season 1, and while casting for Season 2 has not yet been announced, the character's presence across the show's timeline remains a structural constant. [1]
Reception and the Road Ahead
Season 1 performed well by both critical and audience measures, earning approximately 80 percent scores from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and posted strong ratings for HBO. [2] Sarah Aubrey, head of HBO Max Original Programming, cited that foundation in announcing the renewal. "We are excited to return to the chilling world of Derry and to further expand on Andy and Barbara Muschietti's horrifically iconic adaptation," Aubrey said, adding that the new season would "deepen the terror, the mystery, and the unforgettable Pennywise lore." [2]
Muschietti had already signaled momentum before the official announcement, telling Variety earlier this month that a writers' room for Season 2 had opened even without a formal greenlight in place. [1]
Looking further out, Muschietti has previously outlined a three-season arc for Welcome to Derry — one that would eventually include a chapter set around 1908, corresponding to another of King's novel interludes. [1] If that plan holds, Season 2's Depression-era story would be the middle chapter of a prequel trilogy, each installment peeling back another layer of Derry's long and bloody history.
What to Watch
The immediate questions are casting — who will anchor the new ensemble of Depression-era characters — and whether Skarsgård's Pennywise will return in a confirmed capacity. A production timeline and premiere window have not yet been announced. Given the renewal came in August 2026 with a writers' room already underway, a 2027 premiere window is plausible, though HBO has not confirmed one. The show's willingness to reinvent its setting and cast each season makes it an unusual franchise bet — and the next announcement to watch is who will inhabit Derry in 1935.