IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 Heads Back to 1935
HBO has renewed IT: Welcome to Derry for Season 2, which will move the story back to 1935 and the Bradley Gang massacre.
HBO is sending IT: Welcome to Derry farther into the town’s bloody past. The network has renewed the Stephen King prequel series for a second season, with the next chapter set in 1935 during the Great Depression.
That date places Season 2 around the Bradley Gang massacre, one of the catastrophic events woven into Derry’s history in King’s novel. The new season will move 27 years earlier than the first, continuing the cycle that defines Pennywise’s returns.
IT WELCOME TO Derry SEASON 2 GIVES DERRY’S history another chapter
Brad Caleb Kane is expected to remain showrunner, with Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti continuing as key creative forces behind the series. The renewal confirms the broad direction of the story, but HBO has not announced a premiere date or a Season 2 cast.
That last point matters: Bill Skarsgård’s return as Pennywise has been teased, but it has not been officially confirmed for the new season. For now, the surest detail is the 1935 setting and its connection to the Bradley Gang.
Why 1935 matters
King’s Derry is a place where violence repeats and the town learns to look away. The Bradley Gang massacre gives the series another opportunity to connect a public act of brutality with the supernatural force feeding beneath the surface.
Moving backward also keeps the show from becoming a conventional sequel. Instead, each season can reveal another buried layer of Derry while showing how Pennywise’s influence changes, and stays frighteningly familiar, across generations.
What We Think
We are huge Stephen King fans, and Welcome to Derry feels built for the part of us that wants to study every scar the town has tried to hide. I have King-inspired tattoos on my arm, and I have spent years reading these stories, so the promise of another trip into Derry’s history lands differently than a routine renewal. I loved the first season and felt there were a lot of creative decisions made story-wise and visually than really worked.
The 1935 setting is a strong choice because the Bradley Gang massacre offers both a recognizable anchor for readers and room for the series to create something new. The first season established the format; now the show has a chance to make Derry itself the continuing character.
Sources: HBO/WBD Pressroom · ew.com
