IT: Welcome to Derry arrived with a unique structure already in place. Due to the two feature films released in 2017 and 2019 working in tandem, and the fact that the titular monster in the story slumbers for 27 years before waking back up, there was a limited pool of time periods in which the series could be set. Having the new series set in 1989 or 2016 alongside the two movies would have proven confusing and may have created a plot hole or two. As a result, Season 1 of IT: Welcome to Derry flashes all the way back to 1962.
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Another key detail about the plans for IT: Welcome to Derry, which has already been confirmed, is that each new season will continue to turn the clock back. Plans are already in place (and detailed by the series’ creators) that Season 2 would go back to 1935 and that Season 3 would go all the way back to 1908. What fans have already noticed, though, is that Season 1 of Welcome to Derry hasn’t shied away from showing off the Maine town during those times. So, what story is left? More than you think. Way more.
IT: Welcome to Derry Still Has Mysteries to Solve in New Seasons
The latest episode of IT: Welcome to Derry includes the moment that fans have been theorizing about for decades, the reveal that Bob Gray, aka Pennywise the Dancing Clown, was a real person killed and absorbed by IT, which then uses his form to carry out its hunting of vulnerable children. In the episode, we not only see Bob performing as his character, who is far more of a tragic persona than one might believe, but it’s clear that kids genuinely love watching him while on stage. The episode also reveals another figure watching this happen in real time, a small boy standing off in the distance with a gleam in his eye.
Later in the episode, Bob is seen having a cigarette and a drink when an “Urchin Boy” walks out of the woods and approaches him with a curious introductory line, “The children are drawn to you.” It’s a scene that shows us not only why IT chose Bob Gray and Pennywise, but a clue into how its thinking is evolving as more and more people begin to populate Derry and increase the amount of prey in its hunting ground. Though we don’t see the inevitable death of Bob Gray in the scene, we know that he dies after his bloody handkerchief is found (plus, IT taking on the form of Pennywise for the next few decades)
“What did happen to Bob Gray once he went into the woods? We don’t really know. We know that Ingrid Kersh says she never saw her father again. Was his body found? We saw the bloody kerchief. There’s a lot of mystery there,” IT: Welcome to Derry showrunner Jason Fuchs revealed to Screen Rant. “And who was that kid that IT was in the form of? I get that IT took the form of that kid to lure Bob Gray into the woods, that tracks. But when we first see that kid, it’s before IT has made the realization that he even wants to do that. So, what’s the story behind that manifestation? There are many fresh mysteries, I think, suggested by some of the answers to mysteries we provided in the season. And I hope that those mysteries are as satisfying to the next generation of IT fans as the original mysteries in it were to me.”
There are even more details about the 1908 feeding cycle of IT that Fuchs doesn’t even address, which the series will almost certainly show off when the time comes, including: How did IT perfect its performance of Pennywise, and how did the first time it hunted a kid using this form go? How much time was left in this cycle for IT when it absorbed Bob Gray? There’s also a huge event in 1908 that the current season of the series has hinted at, the Kitchener Ironworks explosion. Though depicted in the opening credits (including a flaming Easter bunny since it takes place around the holiday), this would no doubt be a major crux of a potential Season 3 of IT: Welcome to Derry.
That’s getting ahead of ourselves, though, and skipping over the potential for Season 2 entirely. The series has already alluded to what the plot of those episodes would be too, with the reveal of The Bradley Gang’s car and corpses that the army digs up in an early episode. The death of these characters is also depicted in the opening credits, and leaves a lot of room for the new season to explore. Despite all this potential, a new season of the series has not been confirmed just yet, but with the viewership for IT: Welcome to Derry topping the charts for HBO, like a Pennywise meal, it seems inevitable.
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