IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 Finally Gets the Update Fans Have Been Waiting For (But There Are Big Questions)

The biggest problem for IT: Welcome to Derry is that Pennywise the Clown was defeated at the end of 2019’s IT Chapter Two. As a result, the sequel chances were nonexistent, but that’s how the creative team managed to figure out the perfect plan: don’t go forward, go backward. Given his extensive, implied history throughout the IT movies, Pennywise has decades of lore buried in his time in the tiny Maine town that he terrorizes. As a result, IT: Welcome to Derry picks up 27 years before the first IT movie and sets the stage to go back even further.

IT: Welcome to Derry made it clear that the series would keep going back in time, moving from the 1962 setting of Season 1 in several flashbacks, with even the opening credits detailing historical moments in Derry’s past that will become major narrative points for future seasons. Fans were pumped by this implication, and given the series premiered to widespread acclaim and increased viewership week over week, the wait for a Season 2 renewal has been a long one. Now, though, it would appear work has already begun on the next batch of episodes.

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IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 Is Officially in the Works

In a new story about the status of DC Studios’ new Batman movie, Brave and the Bold, The Hollywood Reporter offers IT fans the first tantalizing tidbit about IT: Welcome to Derry‘s future. According to the outlet, IT director and Welcome to Derry co-creator Andy Muschietti remains attached to Brave and the Bold, which remains in development, but one that is taking its time to make sure DC gets it right. The only hiccup in that development is that the trade notes Muschietti has become “a hot commodity” due to Welcome to Derry‘s success, revealing that Season 2 is officially in the works. There’s a key detail about the Season 2 development, though, which is that HBO hasn’t actually renewed the series.

As noted, there are some key questions to ask about IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2. The first is, naturally, when will HBO actually order the episodes? It’s become almost standard at this point for a writer’s room to break a season or ideate what it will be before an official order is given, meaning that the Season 2 order isn’t actually guaranteed until HBO themselves confirm it. Given how popular the show became, and WBD’s commitment to franchises, the renewal feels like a certainty, but nothing in Hollywood is real until it’s official (and even that doesn’t always mean anything). The second question is, when will this happen? Two-year gaps between new seasons is becoming standard for major TV shows, and Welcome to Derry needing to recreate the 1930s for Season 2 will no doubt make it expensive, and perhaps affect when it films, and, as a result, when it will air.

The third question is, will Bill Skarsgard actually return as Pennywise? The actor’s involvement in the first season was something that remained up in the air for quite some time, with interviews after the fact confirming he was reluctant to return to the role unless it offered him something new to explore. The first season of Welcome to Derry was able to do this by giving Skarsgard the chance to play Bob Gray, the real human who inspired IT to take on the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Will Season 2 have anything like this for Skarsgard that adds a new layer to his character? Is the actor going to stick to this mindset for any time he returns to the character? Time will tell, and frankly, there’s nothing to currently suggest that Bill Skarsgard won’t return, but it’s certainly something to wonder as the future of the show itself starts to take more firm shape.