It: Welcome To Derry Is An Entirely Different Show In Season 2

Published Oct 23, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT

Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. 

It: Welcome to Derry is coming back for season 2, and it's already looking like an entirely different show. HBO's It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to Stephen King's beloved horror novel and Andy Muschietti's two-film adaptation, and after a successful first season run, season 2 is reportedly on the way.

The first season of the show takes place in 1962, a time briefly mentioned in the books, when Pennywise awakens and begins terrorizing Derry, just as it would later do in the novel and movies. As is tradition, a group of brave youngsters band together to overcome It, though they can't know It isn't truly dead, only dormant.

It: Welcome to Derry season 1 earned an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, and in August 2026, the series was renewed for a second season. It was unclear what a second season for It: Welcome to Derry could ever be about. Anyone who has read the books can tell you that a critical part of the It story is that the monster only awakens every 24–30 years, then goes dormant again.

With It going dormant at the end of season 1, It: Welcome to Derry was never going to take place in the year 1963 with the same characters, not unless Muschietti was willing to drastically change the lore of King's book. So It: Welcome to Derry is going to have to take things in a brand new direction.

It: Welcome To Derry Is Switching Timelines

Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb

It: Welcome to Derry is switching timelines, jumping from 1962 to 1935, featuring Derry in the midst of the Great Depression. Season 2 will focus on the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who attempt to hide from the law in the Maine town, only to stumble upon the horror that happens to unleash while they are there.

The Bradley Gang is briefly mentioned in King's novel. They are a violent, hideous gang who terrorize and kill, and are brutally put down themselves by a vigilante mob. The time period is memorable in particular for being one of the few instances that multiple adults saw Pennywise, claiming they saw a clown participating in the retaliatory shooting.

In the book, this event takes place in 1929, so everything is being pushed up a few years. With the Great Depression as the backdrop, It: Welcome to Derry season 2 will be taking on an even more grim and hopeless atmosphere. This could shape up to be a tragic season where the horrors of the real world are as threatening as Pennywise.

It: Welcome To Derry Season 2 Will Have A Fresh Cast

Image via MovieStillsDB

With a whole new setting comes a whole new cast. It: Welcome to Derry season 1 already proved it was willing to make drastic cast changes with its legitimately shocking first episode ending with the massacre of the kids we simply assumed we would be spending the whole season with.

With a story set about three decades before the events of season 1, don't expect any characters from the first season to make an appearance. Muschietti says that there will be some character connections between the new season and season 1 as well as the movies and books.

Likely, these connections won't be much more than Easter Eggs, however. This season will still have a central cast of children, but Muschietti says they will be "runaways or orphans," which makes it even less likely that they will have a direct connection to any of the characters in the story.

It does leave open the possibility for It: Welcome to Derry season 2 to connect with the wider Stephen King universe, though. These runaways could come from towns and locations described in other King novels and short stories. Don't be surprised if we see a runaway from Salem's Lot, or a boy is orphaned because his father is imprisoned in Shawshank State Penitentiary.

It: Welcome To Derry Is Reinventing Pennywise In Season 2

Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb

We are going to be seeing a different version of Pennywise this season in It: Welcome to Derry as well. According to Muschietti, Pennywise will appear in ways we haven't seen before. Between the first season of the show and his two movies, Muschietti has already provided a lot of different forms of Pennywise.

In a season set during the Great Depression, Pennywise will have to take some very different forms in order to terrorize a group of people who are probably so dejected and hopeless that a man-eating clown may not seem that much worse than dying of starvation and exposure on the side of the road.

In It: Welcome to Derry season 1, we saw glimpses of Bob Gray, the form It ended up taking after killing the real man. It's unclear exactly when that scene took place, but it probably was not before 1935. It's possible we will see It taking on a completely different form from the one we've all come to know.

It: Welcome To Derry Moves Further Away From Stephen King's Original Book In Season 2

Image via MovieStillsDB

It: Welcome to Derry season 1 was already a stretch from the story King wrote. The Black Spot fire is a memorable chapter of It, but it isn't a major part of the plot, more a disturbing sojourn to help fill out the story. It's stretched and beefed up by It: Welcome to Derry, but most of it is outside of King's canon.

It looks like It: Welcome to Derry season 2 is going to drag things even further away from the original text. There is even less said in It about the Bradley Gang than there is about the Black Spot, so a lot is going to have to be made up. If It has not taken on the form of Bob Gray yet, then we will really be treading new territory.

It: Welcome to Derry made a big change to the story, suggesting that It could experience time all at once, something never implied in the original story. It's very possible the show is going to explore the lore of this universe even more, and invent a few new ideas along the way.