Derry, Maine isn’t done with its terror just yet. HBO has officially greenlit a second season for its hit Stephen King prequel series, IT: Welcome to Derry.

While the renewal felt practically inevitable given the show’s high ratings, the official announcement took some time; Deadline reports that HBO held off until the creative team finalized their narrative direction for the next chapter. Now that the vision is set, horror fans can officially prepare to dive back into Pennywise’s horrific history.

The renewal comes months after Season 1 wrapped its initial run. The eight-episode first season premiered on October 26, 2025, and concluded with a dramatic finale on December 14, 2025.

During its original airing, IT: Welcome to Derry proved to be a ratings juggernaut with Season 1 averaged nearly 20 million weekly viewers globally and 11.5 million viewers per episode in the U.S., establishing itself as the No. 3 original series debut in HBO Max history, trailing only House of the Dragon and The Last of Us. The Season 1 finale pulled in a record 6.5 million U.S. cross-platform viewers in its first four days alone.

Despite the massive numbers, HBO opted not to issue a rush renewal following the December finale. Instead, executives waited for co-creators Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, along with showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, to lock in the precise creative direction for Season 2 before making the official call.

Rather than continuing forward from the 1962 setting of the first season, the team pitched a non-linear leap into the past: Season 2 will jump back 27 years to the height of the Great Depression, rewinding to 1935. The new story centers on an infamous piece of Stephen King lore from the 1986 novel: the violent 1935 ambush and slaughter of the bank-robbing Bradley Gang by the citizens of Derry, where witnesses reported seeing a familiar clown in the crowd.

By unlocking Derry’s earlier blood-soaked cycles, the creative team will be digging even deeper into Pennywise’s ancient origins.