So long, losers! That’s it for It: Welcome to Derry season 1 – or Chapter One, as the title card tagged onto the end credits dubs it, which all but confirms that more episodes are on the way.
The horror-filled finale saw Lilly, Ronnie, and Marge team up to save Will from the titular killer clown, while the Hanlons enlisted the help of Rose, Taniel, and an increasingly disorientated Hallorann to carry out their own rescue mission. Their efforts saw the two groups collide on the outskirts of Derry, as General Shaw and his men closed in to protect to Pennywise (eek!). Given that it’s a prequel, we could’ve predicted that good would’ve triumphed over evil, with It being sent back into hibernation to give Derry locals 27 years of peace and quiet.
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 release date speculation
As it stands, it’s near impossible to predict when It: Welcome to Derry season 2 would air if the shows does get renewed, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted. Once cameras start rolling, it’ll be easier to guess.
Season 1 kicked off filming way back in May 2023, with a suspected December end date. Production was disrupted due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, though, and the shoot was stalled between July 2023 until February 2024. With that, it actually wrapped in August 2024.
On December 11, Stephen King himself took to Threads to suggest that the last episode of season 1 will “blow your mind”. High praise, yes, but it’s the fact that he added “(this year)” after “episode” that really caught our attention. Might HBO drop a surprise second season in 2026? It’s unlikely, but we’re nostalgic for the lost era of annual releases. And we’re not above dreaming of its return…
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 trailer
As it stands, there is no trailer for It: Welcome to Derry season 2 just yet. As soon as it lands online, we’ll be sure to let you know.
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 plot speculation
Director and executive producer Andy Muschietti revealed before It: Welcome to Derry had even premiered that their plan is to set season 2 in 1935. In fact, he went one step further, by divulging that the second chapter would revolve around the Bradley Gang Massacre, a significant moment in Derry’s dark history that has already been explicitly referenced in the show.
“There is an intentional bigger arc that will open,” he previously told Deadline. “My intention with this was to create a story that is a little bit like an iceberg under the water all through seasons 1, 2 and 3. There will be an expansion in the mythology and more answers to the big questions. The second season will be in 1935. At the end of season 1, we are hinting at the reason why we are going to tell the story in two more seasons – and backwards.”
In the book, Losers Club member Mike Hanlon is told by pharmacist Dr. Keene that nearby store Machen Sporting Goods used to be owned by Lal Machen in the early ’30s, who – at the behind-the-scenes behest of It – rallied the residents of Derry to ambush The Bradley Gang. After the notorious bank robbers entered his shop and placed an obscene order for guns and ammunition, he swiftly began encouraging his pals to bring their own firearms to the three-way intersection of Canal, Main, and Kansas Street at the exact time he told Al, George and co. to pick up the goods. Things, as you can imagine, got very bloody – and neither of the Bradleys made it out alive.
It was their skeletons in the car found by Hallorann and Shaw at the end of Welcome to Derry season 2; complete with wads of cash and era-appropriate Tommy guns.
If season 1 is anything to go by, we can expect to meet a bunch of original characters and new subplots, but knowing The Bradley Gang Massacre will be at the center of the story is a good starting point.
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 cast speculation
Given that season 2 will be set almost 30 years before season 1, it’s not likely we’ll see kid characters Lilly, Will, Ronnie, and Marge again, which means Clara Stack, Blake Cameron James, Amanda Christine, and Matilda Lawler’s time in the It universe could be done and dusted. Lilly’s “I guess it’ll be someone else’s fight” in the finale has us doubling down on that theory. Considering we saw flashbacks from 1908 in the first chapter, though, flashforwards aren’t entirely out of the question – and executive producers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti hinted at the “possibility” of it over on Reddit recently.
With spirit-seeing Chris Chalk’s Dick Hallorann off to London, where he’s been offered the head chef job at a remote hotel, it seems safe to assume that Arian S. Cartaya’s Rich won’t appear in season 2; flashforwards or not.
While we saw General Shaw as a kid in the 1908 flashback, the character spoke openly about leaving Derry and only having returned to locate It, so we’re guessing he won’t be present for the second installment, either. Same goes for Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), who moved to Derry in episode 1.
Two characters that could realistically show up are Kimberly Norris-Guerrero’s Rose and Madeleine Stowe’s Ingrid Gray/Kersh, who’ve lived in Derry their whole lives. In the 1908 flashbacks, Emma-Leigh Cullum played Ingrid, while Tyner Rushing portrayed the character in the 1935 sections, so it’s very likely they’ll both be back.
The only dead-cert returning cast member at this stage, though, looks to be Bill Skarsgård. It wouldn’t be an It story without It now, would it?
Will there be an It: Welcome to Derry season 3?
Given that season 2 has yet to be officially announced, it’s no surprise that a third season isn’t guaranteed, either. But for the same reasons we’re sure we’ll get a season 2, we’re pretty positive HBO will let Andy Muschietti and co finish what they started with It: Welcome to Derry.
Before the first episode had even premiered, the director detailed his three-season plan for the show. Season 3, he explained, would be set in 1908; an era we’ve already glimpsed in flashbacks in season 1. The year, it turns out, was the year It first adopted his Pennywise persona, having witnessed a carnival performer’s clown act on the outskirts of Derry and killing him before “stealing” his face.
While it wasn’t covered in It: Welcome to Derry season 1, Muschietti previously teased that a third season would revolve around the Kitchener Ironworks explosion, an event briefly touched on in one of the book’s interlude. In a nutshell, it was an Easter egg hunt that went catastrophically wrong, resulting in the deaths of 88 children and 14 adults back in the early 1900s. Jeremy Ray Taylor’s Ben Hanscom looks up the tragedy in the Derry Public Library in It (2017).
In King’s original novel, the explosion happens in 1906, but since the show follows the same timeline as Muschietti’s movies, things had to be shifted to remain canonical.
It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max. For more, check out our picks of the most exciting new TV shows heading our way or our ranking of the best Stephen King adaptations.
