'It: Welcome to Derry' Renewed for Season 2 at HBO
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- HBO renewed 'It: Welcome to Derry' for Season 2, with the new installment shifting from Season 1's 1962 setting to 1935 during the Great Depression and centering on the Bradley Gang Massacre from King's original novel.
- Brad Caleb Kane becomes sole showrunner of Season 2 after co-running Season 1 with Jason Fuchs, consolidating creative control as the series pivots time periods.
- Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs developed the series for television, all having worked on the 2017 and 2019 'It' film reboot, with Muschietti directing multiple Season 1 episodes and executive producing alongside Kane, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jamie Travis, and Dhana Gilbert through Double Dream.
- Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as the shape-shifting clown Pennywise from the film reboot, joining a Season 1 cast that included Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso.
- Muschietti told Variety that a Season 2 writers' room had already opened before the renewal was formally announced, and previewed a bleaker aesthetic: 'on the surface, Derry is a graveyard almost... a carcass of something because people are depleted, poor, tired, jobless, homeless.'
- The series has a three-season plan, per Muschietti, with a future chapter set to tackle the book 1908-set interlude after the 1935 Season 2 arc.
- Muschietti said Season 2 will not shy from the era's dark history: '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.'
Why it matters: The renewal confirms HBO's commitment to a multi-season Stephen King prequel universe, while the sole-showrunner promotion for Kane and the Depression-era setting mark a deliberate tonal pivot from Season 1's suburban horror. Muschietti's pledge to center 'the social, cultural, horrible things' of the 1930s — orphans, runaways, economic desperation — signals the show will use King's source material to engage Depression-era history head-on rather than use it as mere backdrop.
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