HBO has officially renewed “IT: Welcome to Derry” for a second season, ending months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Stephen King-inspired horror series.
The new season will move the story back 27 years from the events of Season 1, shifting the action from 1962 to 1935 during the Great Depression. According to reports, the next chapter will center on the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers whose arrival in Derry leads to a deadly encounter. The Bradley Gang storyline draws from an interlude in King’s 1986 novel “It” and has already been woven into the television series through references and visual clues. Andy Muschietti previously explained that the group, modeled in part on the real-life Brady Gang, stops in Derry to obtain ammunition before becoming caught up in a horrific massacre. The Depression-era setting will also give the series a markedly different backdrop, with the creative team previously describing a community struggling with poverty rather than the more familiar suburban environment of the first season.
Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Brad Caleb Kane are expected to continue their work on the series, with Kane taking over as sole showrunner, according to reports surrounding the renewal. Casting details have not been fully announced, although Barbara Muschietti has indicated that Bill Skarsgård could return as Pennywise. The series is expected to further explore the origins and mythology surrounding the shape-shifting entity and his human identity, Bob Gray.
The series premiered in October 2025 as a prequel to Muschietti’s “IT” films and became one of HBO Max’s strongest original-series launches. The renewal follows a lengthy period in which HBO repeatedly indicated that the series remained a priority. HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys said earlier this year that the show had been a major success and that the Muschiettis were developing the story, while noting that the lack of a direct novel-based storyline made the creative process more complicated.
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