HBO’s spooky spin-off of a bestselling Stephen King novel is going strong, and a fresh Season 2 update is upping the anticipation. There are some major changes in store for the horror-themed release, which maintains a solid 81% Rotten Tomatoes score despite the time that passed between the first season’s conclusion and an official renewal. Thankfully, the renewal did come. HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry was officially renewed for a second season in August 2026, and the creative minds behind the spooky series hit the ground running. They immediately plunged into work on Season 2, which is heading to an era the story has yet to explore. The popular spin-off of Stephen King’s It set its first season in the 1960s, during one of Pennywise’s many terror sprees, but it’s taking things back to a whole new generation for the second installment.

The upcoming second season of It: Welcome to Derry will take audiences back to the 1930s, during an earlier awakening of the iconic shapeshifting monster, according to show runner Brad Caleb Kane. He told Deadline that the new season will focus on a morbid moment in Derry’s town history, which was touched on in the original book. The plot will revolve around the gruesome massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers whose stop in Derry turns into a terrifying bloodbath. Kane described Welcome to Derry Season 2 as a cross between the classic horror we came to expect in the first episodes and a “Warner Bros. gangster movie,” combining “bank robbers and Hoovervilles and street urchins riding the rails religious fundamentalism,” with a whole new version of Pennywise. The character, played by Bill Skarsgård in both the 2010s films and Season 1, is delivered in a “way you’ve never seen that character before,” according to Kane, who also promised a “bigger” and more ambitious second season.
“We’re writing the scripts. We’re about halfway through the writing of the scripts,” he said in October 2026. “We have a production schedule, we’re greenlit for a Season 2, and Andy Muschietti’s out there casting.”

Kane is digging deep into prequel horror shows, of late. Alongside Welcome to Derry, he’s spending his days working on Crystal Lake, a Friday the 13th origin story following titular killer Jason Voorhees and his murderous mother. That series released on Oct. 15, 2026, and can be streamed in its entirety on Peacock.

We’re still some way off from Season 2 of It: Welcome to Derry, but all eight episodes of its debut season can be enjoyed on HBO Max.

Release Date

October 26, 2025

Network

HBO

Directors

Andy Muschietti

Franchise(s)

IT