‘Welcome to Derry’ Season 2 Promises to Be “Very Bloody” and “Very Different” from Season 1

Pennywise is preparing to return to HBO in Season 2 of IT: Welcome to Derry, and the next chapter of the hit horror series promises to be a bloody and very different experience.

Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane (Crystal Lake) recently teased that the upcoming season will introduce a new side of Pennywise, describing the iconic Stephen King villain as “a different kind of Pennywise… Pennywise the way you’ve never seen that character before.” He also previously compared the season to a “Warner Bros. gangster movie.”

Season 2 will take viewers back to 1935, 27 years before the events of the first season. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kane offered another glimpse at the direction of the upcoming season, emphasizing just how different it will be from Season 1.

“We’re making something very exciting for Season 2 that I can’t talk too much about, but it’s got a different palette,” Kane tells Entertainment Weekly. “It’s the Depression, it’s 1935. Beyond that, I can’t talk about it, but you can imagine a Warner Bros. gangster picture through the lens of Pennywise and Stephen King. That’s kind of what we’re doing.”

Kane also confirmed that the second season is moving forward behind the scenes, with the creative team already deep into development.

“We’re deep into the writers’ room now,” he continues. “We have multiple scripts, we’ve broken more than half the story for season 2, and we’re edging into pre-production. Beyond that, I think I’ll get suffocated by somebody if I tell you too much more. But, yes, we are deep into it, and it is happening. It’s very exciting. It’s very, very bloody, and it’s very different from Season 1.”

‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Season 2 Will Explore Pennywise’s 1935 Killing Cycle

As established in Stephen King’s mythology, IT awakens approximately every 27 years to feed on the people of Derry, with children often serving as its preferred prey. The HBO series explores these recurring periods of terror throughout the town’s history.

Season 1 took place in 1962, while the first IT movie, released in 2017, was set in 1989. Its sequel, IT: Chapter Two (2019), jumped forward another 27 years to 2016.

The second season of IT: Welcome to Derry will explore the events of 1935, centering on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang. The group of bank robbers finds itself caught up in a dangerous situation after stopping in Derry, setting the stage for another horrifying chapter in the town’s history.

Bill Skarsgård is expected to return as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, reprising his role as the terrifying entity at the center of the franchise.

HBO Promises More Terror in Season 2

HBO has also expressed its enthusiasm for continuing the story and expanding the mythology behind Pennywise and the cursed town of Derry.

“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 HBO’s Sarah Aubrey. “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.”

Executive producers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, who helped bring Stephen King’s terrifying world to the screen, also shared their excitement about returning to the franchise.

“Continuing to explore and expand on the amazing world Stephen King created is an absolute privilege. The support of our partners at HBO and Warner Bros. Television is priceless. Boy do we love our jobs!”

With Season 2 heading back to 1935 and introducing a gangster-inspired story drenched in horror, IT: Welcome to Derry looks set to explore another gruesome chapter in Pennywise’s history. And if Kane’s latest comments are any indication, fans can expect a season that takes the series in a bold new direction while delivering plenty of bloodshed.