‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Finally Renewed for Season 2, and It’s Going Back to 1935

The residents of Derry get a 27-year rest between cycles of Pennywise the Dancing Clown menacing their small Maine town.

Fans of IT: Welcome to Derry won’t have to wait quite that long for Pennywise to return to HBO, but they’ll still have to wait a little longer than they probably would have liked.

HBO has officially greenlit Welcome to Derry for a second season nearly a year after the first season premiered last October.

The series — which is based on Stephen King’s iconic horror novel IT — also has a bit of a showrunner change behind the scenes, with Brad Caleb Kane now serving as sole showrunner (instead of sharing duties with Jason Fuchs). Executive producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who made the hit IT films for Warner Bros., also return.

The first season of Welcome to Derry received strong notices, earning around 80 percent critics and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and performed well in the ratings.

We’re told that creative development on the new season took a bit of time given the team is re-starting the story from scratch, thus the renewal delay.

The official logline: “Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, IT: Welcome to Derry is based on King’s IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two. Season two takes place in 1935 during the Great Depression and centers on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror.”

“We are excited to return to the chilling world of Derry and to further expand on Andy and Barbara Muschietti’s horrifically iconic adaptation,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of HBO Max Original Programming. “Together with Brad Caleb Kane, they will break new ground in season two, deepening the terror, the mystery, and the unforgettable Pennywise lore that fans love to devour.”

Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Jamie Travis and Dhana Gilbert also serve as executive producers of the Warner Bros. Television series.