It’s been a pretty great year to be a horror fan. Obsession became one of 2026’s biggest surprise hits, Backrooms turned an internet nightmare into a box-office smash, and even smaller releases like Hokum found an audience. And now, one of the most iconic stories from horror legend Stephen King is getting another chapter. HBO has officially renewed It: Welcome to Derry for a second season, sending Pennywise and the cursed Maine town even further into the past.
The renewal isn’t particularly surprising. Since premiering last year, Welcome to Derry has become one of HBO Max’s four biggest series debuts globally, and creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti have been open about their plans to continue exploring Derry’s past.
What is It: Welcome to Derry about?
It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s movies It and It: Chapter Two, expanding on the history of Stephen King’s famously cursed town.
Season 1 takes place in 1962, 27 years before the events of the first It movie, as a new group of children begins investigating the disappearances and horrors plaguing Derry. At the same time, Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige), and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) become wrapped up in a military attempt to understand — and potentially weaponize — the supernatural force lurking beneath the town. Eventually, of course, that force reveals one of its most recognizable faces: Pennywise, once again played by Bill Skarsgård.
The series uses its much longer TV runtime to explore both its younger characters and Derry itself, showing how Pennywise’s influence extends beyond individual victims to infect the entire community.
In Polygon’s review of the first season, we called Welcome to Derry “the best, scariest It story yet,” praising its expanded look at Derry, its ensemble cast, and the way its episodic format gave the story room the movies never had. We also found that the series recaptured some of the coming-of-age magic that made both 2017’s It and the first season of Stranger Things so effective.
The second season will jump backward another 27 years, from 1962 to 1935, during the Great Depression. According to HBO, the new season will center on the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who arrive in Derry looking to buy ammunition and instead encounter something much worse.
That incident comes directly from King’s It, where the Bradley Gang massacre is one of several historical atrocities associated with Pennywise’s recurring appearances in Derry. The gang was already teased during Welcome to Derry season 1 in the show’s opening credits and through a vintage car connected to the criminals that Hallorann uncovers.
HBO has not announced casting for the new season, including whether Skarsgård will officially return as Pennywise. Considering the show’s premise, though, It itself will inevitably have an important role to play.
HBO has not announced a release date for It: Welcome to Derry season 2.
