It: Welcome to Derry Creators Tease Twists for Seasons 2 and 3

Right, so if you thought It: Welcome to Derry was just there to remind you of your irrational clown phobia, well, the Muschietti siblings are teeing up a much bigger ride. Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who whipped up the original films, are running the show for HBO’s prequel series. And judging by what they’ve been letting slip in recent interviews, the next seasons are going places that are… well, both weirder and possibly even more grim than what we’ve already had.

The Muschiettis’ Masterplan: From Fear to Faith (and then Love?)

If you caught them chatting with IndieWire, you’ll have heard Andy spell out that the first season was all about ‘the weaponisation of fear’. You know, Pennywise and his usual psychological torment—but also that larger, creeping sense of dread hovering over Derry.

Now, here’s where it gets a bit curious. Andy says they want the next seasons to dig into ‘the weaponisation of faith’ and ‘the weaponisation of love’. I’ll be honest, that’s not the sort of chat you’d expect for a series about killer clowns and cursed small towns, but that’s where they’re taking it.

We are living in a world where the weaponisation of fear is something that has to be fought daily… If we are not aware, and if we don’t fight it, we will succumb like Derry.

That’s Barbara—properly laying it on thick there. But to be fair, fear does seem to be the local industry in Derry, Maine.

Season 2: Setting the Clock Back to 1935

So, what does all this mean in practice? Andy let slip at a recent TV panel that season 2 is jumping back to 1935. The storyline? The infamous Bradley Gang. If you’re a Stephen King purist, you’ll know the name. For everyone else: basically, a crew of bank robbers make a pit stop in Derry to pick up some ammo, and—shock—things go absolutely sideways in true King fashion.

Here’s how Andy framed it:

‘It’s 1935, we’re now working on it, and it’s so much fun. For the ones of you who read the books, probably the Bradley Gang sounds familiar. The Bradley Gang was a gang of bank robbers that, not accidentally, but they were on their way somewhere, and they stopped in Derry to buy some ammo and something horrible happens.’

And Season 3? One of Derry’s Darkest Days

Andy casually dropped another little grenade: season 3 (if it happens) is likely to tackle probably the grimmest event in the Derry backstory—the explosion at Kitchener Iron Works, during an Easter egg hunt where about a hundred kids died. So, you know, no light-hearted filler episodes on the horizon.

The Cast and What’s Out There Already

• Season 1 launched on HBO in October.
• Main cast includes: Bill Skarsgård (presumably as the world’s creepiest clown, again), Clara Stack, Amanda Christine, Matilda Lawler, and Taylour Paige, plus a pile of other townsfolk.
• Expect jumps in timeline and loads of King-verse lore as things move forward.

So there you go—if you’re into supernatural horror, family trauma, and watching a small American town slowly get dismantled by ancient evil (with a bit of philosophy on the side), Welcome to Derry looks set to keep serving up more of the same, just with a fresh period coat of paint (and probably even nastier turns). Could be brilliant, could be utter chaos. Either way, I’m in.