Even without an official greenlight from HBO, IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 is already clawing its way through development—and it’s heading somewhere far darker.

According to Andy Muschietti, the next chapter will dig deeper into the mythology of Pennywise, pulling from one of the most violent threads buried inside Stephen King’s 1986 novel It.

Set in 1935, Season 2 shifts away from suburban nostalgia and into the brutal reality of the Great Depression. Muschietti revealed that the story will center around the infamous Bradley Gang—a group of bank robbers whose arrival in Derry spirals into pure carnage.

The storyline is inspired by a real-life crime spree in Maine, but Welcome to Derry is cranking it up into something far more horrific. The Bradley Gang’s fate will unfold as one of the series’ major “events”—a massacre soaked in violence, chaos, and Pennywise’s unseen influence.

Muschietti teased a larger plan spanning multiple seasons, each anchored by a catastrophic moment in Derry’s history. Season 1 revolved around the burning of the Black Spot. Season 2 unleashes the Bradley Gang massacre. And a potential Season 3 would tackle the devastating explosion at the Kitchener Iron Works—an event that claimed the lives of dozens of children.

And through it all? Pennywise is always there… lurking, manipulating, feeding.

Unlike the coming-of-age horror of the original films, this new timeline strips away any sense of comfort. No bikes. No quiet suburbs. Just poverty, desperation, and a town rotting from the inside out.

Serving as a prequel to Muschietti’s IT films, the series also brings back Bill Skarsgård as the shape-shifting nightmare, offering new glimpses into the origins of the entity—and the mystery behind the name Bob Gray.

For Muschietti, the show is a chance to explore the parts of King’s novel that never made it to the screen. The unanswered questions. The fragments of horror left unexplained.

IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 is currently streaming on HBO Max, with a physical release arriving May 5.

If Season 2 moves forward, expect something colder, harsher, and far more vicious—where survival isn’t guaranteed, and evil doesn’t just hide in the shadows… it thrives in them.