It: Welcome to Derry exceeded expectations and added a fascinating new wrinkle to Pennywise's story. By introducing the idea of the creature—which exists in the past, present, and future—travelling back in time to kill the ancestors of the Losers' Club, "It" is now on a mission to save itself from being vanquished in 2016.
Talking to Deadline, filmmaker Andy Muschietti confirmed that Season 2 will continue mining author Stephen King's It novel for ideas and characters that can be expanded on throughout a second batch of episodes.
That means expanding on an event only briefly touched on in the book, revisiting another dark series of event in Derry's sordid history and the role that Pennywise played in the massacre of the Bradley Gang.
"It’s 1935 – we’re now working on it, and it’s so much fun," he said of continuing It: Welcome to Derry. "For [those] 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."
"The Bradley Gang is based on the Brady Gang, which is a real-life gang of robbers that were executed in the streets of Bangor, Maine," Muschietti continued. "And now we’re not creating the event that the big paroxysm of violence in this case will be the massacre of a Bradley gang."
The It helmer is also looking beyond Season 2, confirming that Season 3 "would be the explosion of the Kitchener Iron Works, which is a big explosion during an Easter egg hunt where a hundred kids lost their lives. It’s always there f*cking around, so that much I can tell you."
It: Welcome to Derry revealed that "It" took on Pennywise's form in 1908 after encountering Bob Gray. That happened the same year as the explosion mentioned above, meaning it would likely mark the end of this story, as going further back than that would mean no more Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård's shapeshifting clown remains the franchise's biggest draw).
However, if Pennywise succeeds in averting his death in 2016, then a potential Season 4 could follow the monster in the present day or future, as "It" returns to terrorise Derry all over again. That doesn't seem overly likely, but this remains one of Warner Bros.' biggest franchises, so you never know.
Back to Season 2, and Muschietti teased, "It’s fascinating because the thing that is so much fun in this stage of development is that we’re facing an era which is the Depression Era that changes dramatically the setup of things. There’s no suburban comfort — the trope of the kids that live in suburbia and they ride their bikes and suddenly one of them disappears is nothing like this."
"This is in 1935. It’s a very dire situation. People are very poor. They’re struggling to survive, so the setup will be very different," he added.
Set in the world of Stephen King's It universe, It: Welcome to Derry is based on King's It novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films It and It Chapter Two.
The series is now streaming in full on HBO Max.