HBO still hasn’t greenlit another season of It: Welcome to Derry, but the studio’s head honcho believes there’s more story to tell. In a recent conversation with Deadline, HBO Chief Casey Bloys insisted that the prequel series was “not in limbo at all.” Welcome to Derry was “a huge success” for HBO, and with the mind-twisting tease it set up at the end of Season 1, it was clear that It director Andy Muschietti and co-creator Barbara Muschietti have a plan for more seasons. It’s just a matter of making it concrete.
“Andy and Barbara are hard at work trying to come up with an idea for a story they’d want to tell for another season,” Bloys said. “It’s not limbo other than they need to land on something they’re excited by creatively. We’ll be there.”
Fortunately, Andy Muschietti seems to be working hard on a story that will outdo the gleeful carnage of Welcome to Derry Season 1. Appearing at the Saturn Awards — where Welcome to Derry won Best Horror Series, among a few other prizes — the filmmaker revealed that development for Season 2 is officially underway, and will be even “greater” than the first.
“There’s not much we can say, but yes,” Muschietti said when asked if Season 2 was truly in the works. “We’re very proud that the expectations are high after the first season. I think we’re going to deliver something that is greater.”
Muschietti has already revealed a loose plan for future seasons of Welcome to Derry. The series will travel back in time another 27 years, following the parents of the kids who face off against Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) in Season 1. But the finale also introduced a fascinating time-travel wrinkle to that straightforward premise: as Pennywise experiences time differently, the past is almost the future for him. He’s aware of the threats to his existence, and seems hellbent on wiping out the lineage of the families who will eventually defeat him.
That all makes Pennywise a little like the Terminator as Welcome to Derry heads into a new season. There’s a question of whether the demonic entity is changing the future at all as he travels further into the past, or if this is all a fixed loop where he’s destined to face defeat. That concept alone should pitch Season 2 into “greater” territory than Season 1, but Muschietti seems determined to top that twist however he can. Either way, the wait for more of this horror series should be well worth it.
