When HBO released IT: Welcome to Derry earlier this year, the show was a gargantuan success. Despite the fact that the cards were stacked against the series, considering the less-than-stellar reputation of the most recent film, IT: Chapter Two back in 2019, and the public failure that primary creative Andy Muschietti endured with The Flash in 2023, the series emerged as both a critical and commercial smash. It earned stellar reviews, became a fan-favorite, and netted more than 5.7 million views out of the gate for the third biggest original series premiere on HBO Max, only behind the likes of The Last of Us and House of the Dragon.
So considering all of this tremendous success, why has a second season not been greenlit? The series aired its final episode over a month ago now, and rather than the kind of quick buzz-building announcement that many HBO shows (such as other recent hit, The Chair Company) see immediately after concluding, IT: Welcome to Derry has remained dormant. According to HBO chief Casey Bloys, the delay is solely on the creative side, and while that second season might not be officially announced, it's all but certain to happen.
IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 is "not in limbo"
In a recent interview with Deadline, Bloys said of the second season, “Let me say, not in limbo at all. Hardly. It was a huge success for us. Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are hard at work trying to come up with an idea for a story they’d want to tell for another season. I would happily do it. One of the challenges is, there’s not a book that you’re basing it on, so it’s invention. They want to make sure that they have a story they’re excited to tell. So it’s not limbo other than they need to land on something they’re excited by creatively. We’ll be there.”
While Bloys’ comments do seem extremely positive regarding the possibility of future seasons of the series, the inconsistencies between this answer and the information that Andy Muschietti was more than happy to share on the press tour for the first season do seem strangely inconsistent. While promoting the series, Muschietti said over and over again that they had a three-season plan in place, which would move backwards in time, tracking the titular It’s history back through 1935 and then 1908. The first season ended with some pretty big reveals and cliffhangers that tied directly into this idea, so it’s a bit strange to hear Bloys attempting to pitch the whole thing as if Muschietti and co. just need to crack the story before moving forward.
Furthermore, the comments about “it’s invention” do feel a bit disingenuous, considering just how much of that first season was ripped straight from King’s original novel. That’s not a con, but a plus, and one that Muschietti and co. have been eager to embrace from the outset; the source material is massive, and even turning it into two films left plenty of material untouched and ready to be adapted here.
The elephant in the room here seems to be Muschietti’s other commitment, to the DCU, with him attached to direct Batman: The Brave and the Bold. That film is finally getting going, with a screenwriter recently officially attached, so if there’s movement on that front, it could well be slowing down plans for further IT seasons. Maybe Bloys just got caught in the crossfire of all of this and felt the need to say something as an excuse. Regardless, it still sounds like it’s less a question of if there will be more of IT: Welcome to Derry, and more a question of when.