Will there be an It: Welcome to Derry season 2?

Horror fans have been gripped by HBO's nightmarish It: Welcome to Derry, which saw the return of the terrifying Pennywise the Dancing Clown (as portrayed by Bill Skarsgård) - and now, fans are patiently waiting for news on a potential season 2.

In season 1, the chilling prequel took us back in time to 27 years before the early events of the Stephen King novel (and film adaptation), where the so-called Losers Club had their first run-in with the terrifying entity.

If the creative team behind the spin-off has their way, we'll be going back even further in a potential second season, to learn more about what exactly It wants, and how the creature came to be marooned on this planet.

If you're eager to see an It: Welcome to Derry season 2, read on for everything we know so far about the future of the series, now the dramatic season 1 finale has dropped!

Will there be an It: Welcome to Derry season 2?

HBO is yet to confirm whether It: Welcome to Derry has been renewed for a second season or will be cancelled.

Things looked promising for the series in its opening week, when the network announced Welcome to Derry was their third most-watched launch on HBO Max, behind only past phenomenons House of the Dragon and The Last of Us.

Nielsen later reported that 620 million minutes of the series were streamed across North America in the seven days after its premiere, placing it in the top ten most-watched streaming shows of that week.

However, it hasn't quite been able to sustain that level of interest across the whole season, as shown by it quietly dropping off the Nielsen top ten in subsequent reports.

For that reason, in addition to recent uncertainty regarding the future of HBO and parent company Warner Bros., it's difficult to predict with confidence what the future holds for It: Welcome to Derry.

We'll update this page when more information on the show's status comes to light.

When could a potential It: Welcome to Derry season 2 be released?

If It: Welcome to Derry does get renewed for a second season, it would likely be with us in 18-24 months' time, which has become a normal production cycle for many large-scale genre shows.

That would point to a potential premiere window between summer and winter 2027. However, producer Barbara Muchietti recently said on Reddit that it's "not the intention" to make fans wait "years" for another instalment.

Watch this space!

Who could star in a potential It: Welcome to Derry season 2?

If It: Welcome to Derry does return for a second season, it seems likely that the show could have an entirely different cast – with a notable exception being Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.

It would be difficult to imagine Welcome to Derry continuing without the Swedish star, who has made the role of Stephen King's iconic villain entirely his own across two feature films and the first season of this spin-off.

However, as a potential next season is set to go further back in time than ever before, it seems likely that we'd be introduced to a new cast of children for the Dancing Clown to terrorise.

When would It: Welcome to Derry season 2 be set?

Welcome to Derry co-creator Andy Muschietti has suggested that a potential second season of the horror series would go back further in time to the previous occurrence of Pennywise's 27-year awakening – that means shifting the story to 1935.

"Everything that we are setting up in season 1, that will really manifest in [seasons] 2 and 3, is a look into all the bigger questions about It. 'What does It want? Why is It here?' All the cryptic elements of It that we're going to ruin and explain," he told SFX.

Is there a trailer for It: Welcome to Derry season 2?

Alas, there's no new footage to share just yet – we'll update this page if that changes.

It: Welcome to Derry is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW.

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