It’s been a reasonably nice 12 months to be a horror fan. Obsession grew to become considered one of 2026’s largest shock hits, Backrooms turned an web nightmare right into a box-office smash, and even smaller releases like Hokum discovered an viewers. And now, one of the vital iconic tales from horror legend Stephen King is getting one other chapter. HBO has formally renewed It: Welcome to Derry for a second season, sending Pennywise and the cursed Maine city even additional into the previous.
The renewal isn’t significantly shocking. Since premiering final 12 months, Welcome to Derry has develop into considered one of HBO Max’s 4 largest collection debuts globally, and creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti have been open about their plans to proceed exploring Derry’s previous.
What’s It: Welcome to Derry about?
It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s motion pictures It and It: Chapter Two, increasing on the historical past of Stephen King’s famously cursed city.
Season 1 takes place in 1962, 27 years earlier than the occasions of the primary It film, as a brand new group of kids begins investigating the disappearances and horrors plaguing Derry. On the similar time, Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige), and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) develop into wrapped up in a army try to grasp — and doubtlessly weaponize — the supernatural power lurking beneath the city. Finally, after all, that power reveals considered one of its most recognizable faces: Pennywise, as soon as once more performed by Invoice Skarsgård.
Picture: HBO
The collection makes use of its for much longer TV runtime to discover each its youthful characters and Derry itself, exhibiting how Pennywise’s affect extends past particular person victims to contaminate all the neighborhood.
In Polygon’s evaluation of the primary season, we known as Welcome to Derry “the most effective, scariest It story but,” praising its expanded take a look at Derry, its ensemble forged, and the best way its episodic format gave the story room the films by no means had. We additionally discovered that the collection recaptured among the coming-of-age magic that made each 2017’s It and the primary season of Stranger Issues so efficient.
The second season will bounce backward one other 27 years, from 1962 to 1935, in the course of the Nice Despair. Based on HBO, the brand new season will heart on the bloodbath of the Bradley Gang, a bunch of financial institution robbers who arrive in Derry seeking to purchase ammunition and as a substitute encounter one thing a lot worse.
Photograph: Brooke Palmer/HBO
That incident comes instantly from King’s It, the place the Bradley Gang bloodbath is considered one of a number of historic atrocities related to Pennywise’s recurring appearances in Derry. The gang was already teased throughout Welcome to Derry season 1 within the present’s opening credit and thru a classic automobile related to the criminals that Hallorann uncovers.
HBO has not introduced casting for the brand new season, together with whether or not Skarsgård will formally return as Pennywise. Contemplating the present’s premise, although, It itself will inevitably have an vital position to play.
HBO has not introduced a launch date for It: Welcome to Derry season 2.
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