It sounds as though It: Welcome to Derry season 2 will be even bloodier and more brutal than the first season, as co-creator and showrunner Andy Muschietti confirms the show will embrace the dark 1930s era it is set in.
The new season will take place in 1935, which we already knew, as IT the clown returns to Derry every 27 years. However, unlike Stephen King's original novel, which differs in timeline, Welcome to Derry season 2 will have to deal with the fallout of the great depression. "There’s gonna be a lot of that depression-era hustling in the air in our characters," said Muschietti to Variety. "Everybody’s trying to get by and survive the circumstances. They are gonna do crazy things."
"And of course, the social, cultural, horrible things that were happening in the era, too. We’re not going to skip those. [They are the] very center and the heart of our story." It sounds as though historical events will change the setup of the show too. Rather than following a bunch of kids around on bicycles, season 2 will embrace a different aesthetic.
"In this case, on the surface, Derry is a graveyard almost. It’s a carcass of something because people are depleted, poor, tired, jobless, homeless. The kids don’t have a suburban, comforting life. They’re in a very different situation," added Muschietti. Some of them are orphans or runaways, and so the environment is pretty bleak. But there’s always the aspect of hope that is always there, burning, and it’s what keeps our new group going.”
It: Welcome to Derry season 1 takes place in 1962, and sees the entity target some of the parents of the original Losers Club from the 2017 It movie. The first movie was set 27 years after Welcome to Derry season 1, and the second movie was set 2017 years after the first movie. But as the second film marks the end of the clown, now the only way to tell the story is backwards. After season 2, Welcome to Derry season 3 will jump back another 27 years to 1908, when It first took shape as a clown.
As outlined in King's works, each time It returns, a devastating event takes place. The first movie saw Bill's brother George ferociously murdered, and the second movie kicked off with a gruesome hate crime on a tourist. Then in season 1, it was the devastating Black Spot fire. Season 2 will focus on the Bradley Gang Massacre, following a group of outlaws who descended on Derry and caused havoc in the town.
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our guide to the best shows on HBO, and keep up with new TV shows on the way.
