WaIT, Is Welcome To Derry Season 2 Already Filming? I'm Convinced The Co-Showrunner’s Pennywise Clue Is LegIT

Although the 2026 TV schedule and lineup of movie releases aren’t shaping out to be nearly as big for Stephen King fans as last year’s offerings were, it’s almost a pop culture commandment at this point that at least one adaptation of the King of Horror’s works must be happening at all times. Indeed, several upcoming Stephen King projects are in various stages, and the one I’d argue fans are most invested in is the second season of HBO’s frightfest IT: Welcome to Derry, which has yet to receive an official renewal.

Despite the lack of network announcements, the Derry creative team has been bullish about the prequel horror’s future, with co-creator Andy Muschietti having already revealed his three-season plan to go deeper into IT’s history. Conversations ramped up again in March, as the direction addressed his plan to make an IT feature supercut, and now co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane has offered what could be our biggest clue yet that Season 2 is absolutely in the works. Check out his Instagram post below:

Even shared without a caption or any other supplemental information, Kane’s post is quite obviously a reference to Pennywise’s party favor of choice: a stark red balloon floating in an unassuming spot. In this particular case, the balloon is seen floating above an unidentified person standing on the Warner Bros. studio lot. (Okay it’s not really floating there, since it’s was added to the pic after the fact.)

Unless Kane is just trolling the hell out of everyone — and he doesn’t seem to be that kinda dude — there are only a couple of logical takeaways one can conjure up from this pic. The first is the most obvious and exciting: IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 is kicking off production, or at the very least, the pre-production process is ramping up, even if nothing is official just yet.

This presumption seems to align with a social post from the co-showrunner shared a few days earlier, featuring a pic from Hollywood's legendary Vista Theatre and indicated he'll be in town working for a while.

Another possible explanation for the red balloon pic could be that Kane is in L.A. with his fellow IT co-conspirators to formally pitch a working outline for Seasons 2 and 3 to HBO boss Casey Bloys and other execs, with a goal of getting that official two-season renewal. The ratings for Season 1, both on HBO and HBO Max, were definitely positive enough to justify the extension, so it shouldn't take that much convincing, unless the new arcs require unreachably high budget asks.

I don't think Andy Muschietti would doom himself in such a way, though. I think he, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs are all aware of what the expecations and limitations are for this universe, especially after having put Season 1 together. As such, I think HBO's suits are already blood-soaked with excitement for more Pennywise, and that Kane's teasy pic is a sign that things are definitely floating in the right direction, and that production updates are imminent.

Bill Skarsgård has talked about finding a new approach to playing Pennywise for Season 2, if it happens, and Barbara Muschietti has spoken confidently about filming being more of a "when" issue, and not an "if" question. So get all your clown cosplay gear set up and ready to go. Even if Pennywise won't be back on our TVs this Halloween, we can show support by making sure he's represented everywhere! (Well maybe not at elementary schools and pediatrician offices, but most places.)