‘Welcome to Derry’ Season 2 Renewal Delay Addressed by HBO

HBO boss Casey Bloys has provided an update on the second season of IT: Welcome to Derry, which proved to be one of the network’s biggest hits of 2025. Based on Stephen King’s classic supernatural horror book IT, and serving as a prequel to the two movie adaptations directed by Andy Muschietti, Welcome to Derry rewinds the clock to 1962, where a fresh group of children finds themselves being stalked by Bill Skarsgård’s shape-shifting monster, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. All the while, the U.S. Air Force attempts to harness this so-called “weapon” in a bid to end the Cold War.

Oddly, the series’ return is yet to get the green light from HBO, but thanks to Deadline, we now know that there’s positive movement going on behind the scenes. In conversation with the media outlet, Bloys was asked why Welcome to Derry appeared to be trapped in limbo.

“It was a huge success for us. Andy and Barbara [Muschietti, executive producer] are hard at work trying to come up with an idea for a story they’d want to tell for another season. I would happily do it. One of the challenges is, there’s not a book that you’re basing it on, so it’s invention. They want to make sure that they have a story they’re excited to tell. So it’s not limbo other than they need to land on something they’re excited by creatively. We’ll be there.”

This comes after Muschietti himself revealed that Season 2 would unfold in the year 1935, “in theory”, which lands on another Pennywise rampage through the town of Derry. For context: the creature awakens every 27 years to terrorize a new generation of local youngsters. Having failed to see off Marge Truman (played by Matilda Lawler) — the future mother of Losers Club member and Pennywise defeater Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard in the IT movies) — could he be going after one of her own relatives to kill the bloodline?

Andy Muschietti’s Vision for ‘Welcome to Derry’

Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise in IT: Welcome to Derry

Brooke Palmer / ©HBO / Courtesy Everett Collection

Following the twisty Season 1 finale, which flashed forward to the suicide of Elfrida Marsh 26 years later (and reunited fans with the IT movies’ Beverly Marsh, reprised by Sophie Lillis), Muschietti spoke to TVLine about the three-season vision for Welcome to Derry, which plunders three “catastrophic events” from the original book’s various interludes, as well as the surprise ‘Chapter One’ statement that promises more from this universe.

“From the genesis of this project, we had the idea to make it three seasons, aligning with the three more important catastrophic events that are described in the interludes [of the book]. Those are the burning of the Black Spot in ’62 — well, in the book, the dates are different, because we did a transport of the periods — but then the massacre of the Bradley Gang in ’35, and the explosion at the Easter egg hunt in 1908. It was always that blueprint for us.

“The idea of putting ‘Chapter One’ on the final card came in post-production, even though we knew that three seasons was the big arc. I wanted to create kind of the same excitement from the end of our first movie. Most people went to the cinema not knowing that it was a two-part movie, but the story in the book required a second half. We have great memories of watching the end of Chapter One [with audiences], and putting ‘Chapter One’ at the end, and people went like, [screams]. It was great. So at the end of this one, I said, ‘Wait, let’s do the same,’ and we did it.”

To find out whether he intends to introduce a third Losers Club in Season 2, check out MovieWeb‘s previous coverage of the show right here.