Welcome to Derry Season 2 Is Creeping Closer: HBO Release Window, Cast, Plot, and Everything We Know

Well, that was a ride. It: Welcome to Derry just wrapped its first season — and yes, the end credits slapped a 'Chapter One' on it. Subtle, it is not. Translation: more is coming, even if HBO hasn’t said the quiet part out loud yet.

How the finale left things

The last hour pushed two rescue teams into the same nightmare. Lilly, Ronnie, and Marge went after Will. Meanwhile, the Hanlons linked up with Rose, Taniel, and a very scrambled Dick Hallorann for their own save. Both groups crashed into each other on Derry’s edge just as General Shaw and his men closed in — not to stop Pennywise, but to protect him. Cute.

Because this is a prequel, you know the drill: the kids win the battle, not the war. It gets shoved back into hibernation, giving Derry 27 years of blessed silence. As Andy Muschietti’s films already mapped out, that clock runs out in late 1988 with Georgie Denbrough and the paper boat.

Season 2 status and timing (what we can actually say)

HBO hasn’t announced a renewal, but the show launched as one of HBO Max’s biggest debuts, right up there with House of the Dragon and The Last of Us. Feels like a formality.

If you’re trying to game out dates, here’s the useful math: season 1 started shooting in May 2023, then got shut down by the SAG-AFTRA strike from July 2023 to February 2024, and finally wrapped in August 2024. Once cameras roll on season 2, we can make a smarter guess. Optimistically, 2026 is in play — though a surprise drop would be out of character for how big these productions are.

'...the last episode will blow your mind' — Stephen King on Threads, adding '(this year)'.

King posted that on December 11. Great hype, and the little '(this year)' aside set some antennas buzzing — but don’t overthink it. Until HBO says otherwise, patience is the plan.

Trailer

None yet. When HBO starts rolling out footage, you’ll know about it five minutes after they hit publish.

What season 2 is actually about

Andy Muschietti didn’t wait for the finale to spill this: the plan is to set season 2 in 1935 and center it on the Bradley Gang Massacre. He’s talked about a larger myth arc that stretches across three seasons and moves backward in time, with season 2 expanding the lore and answering some of the bigger questions season 1 kicked up.

The Bradley Gang piece comes straight from King’s book. Pharmacist Dr. Keene tells a young Mike Hanlon that Lal Machen — the guy who owned Machen Sporting Goods in the early ’30s — was nudged by It to lure Derry locals into an ambush. After the Bradleys swaggered in and ordered an absurd amount of guns and ammo, Machen told them to come back at a specific time, then quietly had the town bring their own firepower to the intersection of Canal, Main, and Kansas. It turned into a massacre. In the show, those are the skeletons Hallorann and Shaw found in the car at the end of season 1, still surrounded by cash and Tommy guns. That discovery was the breadcrumb for season 2.

Expect new characters and side stories layered around that central event, just like season 1 built an original crew around the canon.

Who is (and isn’t) likely back

Because season 2 jumps back almost 30 years, do not count on the main kid group returning front-and-center. The finale even lampshaded it with Lilly’s line: 'I guess it’ll be someone else’s fight.'

• Likely out as regulars: Clara Stack (Lilly), Blake Cameron James (Will), Amanda Christine (Ronnie), and Matilda Lawler (Marge). Flashforwards aren’t impossible — season 1 used 1908 flashbacks — and the producers have hinted that time jumps remain on the table.
• Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is headed to London for a head-chef gig at a remote hotel, so don’t bank on him in 1935. By extension, Arian S. Cartaya’s Rich is probably sitting this one out too.
• General Shaw’s timeline suggests he won’t be around in 1935 either, and the same goes for Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), who only moved to Derry during season 1.
• People who could realistically show up: Kimberly Norris-Guerrero’s Rose and Madeleine Stowe’s Ingrid Gray/Kersh, both lifelong Derry residents. Expect to see Ingrid at multiple ages again — Emma-Leigh Cullum played her in 1908, and Tyner Rushing covered the 1935 scenes — which lines up perfectly with season 2’s setting.
• The one sure thing: Bill Skarsgard. It isn’t It without It.

Is there a season 3 plan?

Nothing official, but Muschietti has sketched out a three-season roadmap. Season 3 would land in 1908 — the year Pennywise adopts the clown persona after watching a carnival performer outside Derry and, well, taking his face. He’s also teased that the Kitchener Ironworks explosion would anchor that season: an Easter egg hunt that went horribly wrong, killing 88 children and 14 adults. Ben Hanscom digs into it in the 2017 movie. In King’s novel, the explosion is dated 1906; the show follows the films’ timeline, so the years shift to keep everything in sync.

Where to watch

It: Welcome to Derry season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max. Season 2 news the second it exists.