The current state of IT: Welcome To Derry has successfully flummoxed fans. The 2025 Stephen King TV series was welcomed with a warm reception by critics, got big ratings numbers throughout its first season (with the finale earning the biggest audience of all)... and yet, HBO has not yet announced any kind of renewal – be it for a single season or multiple seasons. Patience has been tested as we’ve waited for some kind of news since the last episode aired in mid-December, and while we don’t have confirmation today that Season 2 is happening, we do have an extremely optimistic update to share.
During a recent sitdown with HBO chief Casey Bloys, Deadline got an update about IT: Welcome To Derry Season 2, and the news is unexpected: it seems that it’s not executives holding up news of an official renewal, but instead a creative delay. While it seems that the premium cable channel would be all too happy to see more episodes head toward production, an announcement has been slowed by efforts to make sure that the filmmakers know precisely what story they want to tell. Said Bloys,
Let me say, not in limbo at all. Hardly. It was a huge success for us. And Andy [Muschietti] and Barbara [Muschietti] are hard at work trying to come up with an idea for a story they’d want to tell for another season. I would happily do it. One of the challenges is, there’s not a book that you’re basing it on, so it’s invention. They want to make sure that they have a story they’re excited to tell. So it’s not limbo other than they need to land on something they’re excited by creatively. We’ll be there.
If you’re a bit confused by this update, I can totally understand. Going into the making of IT: Welcome To Derry, producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti and showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane have talked extensively about a big picture plan for the series – one that will each season take place 27 years before the previous one (with 27 years being the amount of time that IT a.k.a. Pennywise spends in hibernation before waking and terrorizing the titular Maine town). But just because there is a framework doesn’t mean that the filmmakers have long known exactly what stories they want to tell within it, and that part of the creative process is apparently holding up Season 2.
As for what we do know: while the show won’t necessarily be abandoning all of the characters we got to know and love from 1962, Season 2 will principally focus on IT’s rampage in the year 1935. Most of what plays out will be newly invented material (including a special new perspective for Bill Skarsgård’s IT), but to contradict Casey Bloys a bit, there is a plan to still use Stephen King’s beloved 1986 novel as key source material – specifically the “Interlude” that recounts the deadly Bradley Gang Massacre that was Pennywise’s coup de grâce of the time period.
It seems that when we get IT: Welcome To Derry Season 2 will wholly depend on when the filmmakers can crack exactly how they want to move forward with the show – which is bad news for impatient people but good news for fans who don’t want to see the series get rushed. It should go without saying that we here at CinemaBlend are keeping a very close eye on developments, so be on the look out for more updates on the site in the coming weeks and months. For now, all episodes of Season 1 are available to watch and rewatch with an HBO Max subscription.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
