Stephen King’s grandson is now writing for It: Welcome to Derry — and he’s never had a credit before
Derry just welcomed a King: a member of Stephen King’s family has slipped into the writers’ room for HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry Season 2.
Here’s one for the King family tree spotters: the writers’ room on It: Welcome to Derry has just added someone with a serious horror pedigree in the bloodline. Enter Ethan King, grandson of Stephen King himself, who’s stepped in as a writer for season 2 of HBO’s prequel series. Yes, that’s two generations between him and the bloke who dreamed up Pennywise — but apparently, those storytelling genes are rather persistent.
Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane told Radio Times, 'King’s grandson Ethan is writing for Season 2. He’s brilliant and really smart. He’s a chip off the old block. You can see why the Kings are how they are. It’s definitely passed down genetically through generations.'
If you’re wondering what Ethan King has penned before: absolutely nothing that’s seen daylight. According to ScreenRant, no prior credits to his name — so this Derry gig is his professional debut as a writer. Not exactly small stakes, then.
This is hardly the King family’s first lap round the block, mind. Stephen’s son — and Ethan’s dad — has been writing eerie stuff for years under the pen name Joe Hill, with Locke & Key one of the more notable efforts (and picked up by Netflix, no less). There’s definitely a pattern here: King offspring inevitably end up spinning tales of murder, monsters, or both.
The Derry Origins
If you missed season 1 — which landed back in October 2025 — It: Welcome to Derry is set decades before Pennywise gets acquainted with The Losers Club in the 2017 and 2019 films. Season 1 played out in the 1960s, but for the second run, the show’s jumping even further back. We’re talking 1935, Great Depression America, specifically during the blood-soaked demise of the infamous Bradley Gang — a band of bank robbers who get far more than they bargained for in Derry’s not-so-sleepy streets.
The first season arrived in October 2025.
The show’s creative team is still run by director Andy Muschietti (the same chap who helmed the two recent It films), along with his sister Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. Fuchs originally shared showrunner duties with Brad Caleb Kane, but for this second season Kane is steering the ship solo.
As for a release date on this second outing? That’s still up in the air. But with a King on the writing staff (no, the other King), Derry’s about to get a fresh dose of horror genetics in the mix.