When a TV show hits that sweet spot of being both a viral hit and a critical smash, it’s usually a no-brainer for instant renewal. Look at A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which was renewed even before its first season hit HBO. But It: Welcome to Derry, also an HBO series, is a trickier property.
While the first season of the Stephen King series, a prequel to the It movies, was well-received, there’s yet to be an official season two announcement. That’s not because HBO doesn’t want one, but because co-creators Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs have been carefully figuring out what a second installment of Welcome to Derry might look like.
Their plan all along has been to explore different eras in which Pennywise comes to terrorize the titular Maine village, moving backwards in time according to the demonic alien clown’s 27-year hibernation cycle. Season one of It: Welcome to Derry took place in 1962, 27 years prior to the first It movie, with It Chapter Two picking up 27 years after that and bringing the action all the way up to 2016. That means 1935 is the likely setting for It: Welcome to Derry season two.
Less apparent, of course, is anything beyond the year: what specific characters will it follow? How will it fit into the 1930s flashbacks we got in season one? What else will be involved besides wannabe gangsters and (presumably) Pennywise pouncing on children in the Juniper Hill Asylum basement, aided and abetted by Bob Gray’s misguided daughter?
We don’t know. HBO might not even know. But it sounds like Andy Muschietti has an inkling, thank goodness. Speaking at a press conference for the recent Saturn Awards (via Nerdist), where the show won Best Horror Television Series, the director had a promising update about whether or not It: Welcome to Derry would return.
“There’s not much we can say but yes,” he said. “We’re very proud that the expectations are high after the first season. I think we’re going to deliver something that is greater.”
Your move, HBO! Especially since even if It: Welcome to Derry is officially renewed today, it’ll still take some time for new episodes to arrive.
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Source: Gizmodo