The red balloons are going back up. HBO has officially renewed It: Welcome to Derry for a second season, giving the Stephen King prequel series another trip into the cursed history of Derry, Maine.

The renewal, reported by Polygon on October 25, is not a huge surprise. The show has become one of HBO Max’s four biggest series debuts globally, and its creators have been open about wanting to keep exploring Derry’s dark past. Here is what fans need to know.

A quick refresher on season 1

It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to director Andy Muschietti’s films It and It: Chapter Two, which adapted King’s 1986 novel. Muschietti and his sister, producer Barbara Muschietti, developed the series to dig deeper into the town where Pennywise feeds every 27 years.

Season 1 is set in 1962, 27 years before the events of the first film. A new group of children starts investigating disappearances in town, while Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) get caught up in a military effort to understand, and possibly weaponise, the force lurking beneath Derry. Eventually that force shows its most famous face: Pennywise, once again played by Bill Skarsgård.

Polygon’s review called it “the best, scariest It story yet”, praising the way the longer TV format gave the story room to explore both its young characters and the town itself.

Season 2 heads to the Great Depression

The new season keeps the show’s 27-year rhythm, but this time it jumps backwards. Season 2 will go from 1962 back to 1935, during the Great Depression.

According to HBO, the story will centre on the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who come to Derry looking to buy ammunition and instead run into something far worse. Readers of King’s novel will recognise the event. In the book, the Bradley Gang massacre is one of several historical atrocities tied to Pennywise’s recurring appearances in the town.

The show has already planted seeds. The gang was teased in season 1’s opening credits, and Hallorann uncovers a vintage car linked to the criminals during the first season.

What we don’t know yet

HBO has kept most details under wraps. So far, there is:

  • **No release date.** HBO has not said when season 2 will premiere.
  • **No casting announcement.** It has not been confirmed whether Bill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise, though given the premise, the creature will almost certainly play a central role in some form.
  • **No episode count.** Details about the season’s length have not been announced.

Because the new season is set nearly three decades before season 1, most of the human characters are likely to be new, which gives the creators a fresh start while keeping the same monster at the centre.

Why it works as an anthology of sorts

One of the smartest things about the show’s structure is that Derry itself is the main character. King’s novel is built around the idea that the town has been shaped by a cycle of violence and forgetting, with Pennywise returning roughly every 27 years.

That gives the series a built-in road map. Each season can visit a different cycle, a different era and a different group of victims, while slowly filling in the history of how the town became what it is. A Depression-era season also opens the door to a very different look and feel, from dust and desperation to gangsters and small-town paranoia.

Part of a bigger horror moment

The renewal lands during a strong year for horror on screens big and small. Polygon points to hits such as Obsession and Backrooms as signs that audiences are hungry for scares, and It: Welcome to Derry has been one of the clearest examples on television.

The bottom line

It: Welcome to Derry is coming back, and it is heading even deeper into Derry’s past. With the Bradley Gang massacre as its centrepiece and the 1930s as its setting, season 2 promises a fresh story with a very familiar villain. There is no premiere date yet, but if you have not caught up on season 1, now is a good time to start, preferably with the lights on.

Image: Red Balloon by AJ Montpetit via StockSnap, CC0 1.0