Pennywise is putting on a fresh fedora for his return in It: Welcome to Derry, and it’s not gonna be like anything we’ve seen in this Stephen King franchise yet.
Oh, man. I just remembered that I never finished Season 1 of HBO’s hit IT series, even though I had every intention to do so. Now that I’ve learned season two will be a 1930s gangster story, I’m going to do just that tonight, between episodes of Crystal Lake and Carrie.
We’ve really hit a high water mark for horror TV in the past couple of years. I think I only have two episodes of Derry left to go. Today’s big news is that we’re getting a different take on Pennywise the dancing clown when the streamer returns.
I’m so ready for this (if I can finish the season 1 finale, then get through all these other TV horror reboots first. Sounds like I have a little bit of time to catch up).
Pennywise is coming back to Derry, but don’t expect the killer clown to look at his next round of victims the same way as he did before. It: Welcome to Derry Season 2 will introduce a version of Stephen King’s nightmare creature that audiences have never seen before, according to showrunner Brad Caleb Kane.
Speaking with Deadline, Kane teased a different approach to the character played by Bill Skarsgård, promising that the upcoming season will be bigger than the first. That is a pretty bold promise for a series that has already spent an entire season reminding viewers that Derry is one of the worst places on Earth to raise a family.
“We’re writing the scripts. We’re about halfway through the writing of the scripts. We have a production schedule, we’re greenlit for a Season 2, and Andy Muschietti’s out there casting…I don’t think it’s a big secret. I think it’s a little bit out there, but it’s 1935, it’s a Warner Bros. gangster movie. It’s bank robbers and Hoovervilles and street urchins riding the rails religious fundamentalism. And a different kind of Pennywise, Pennywise the way you’ve never seen that character before. So, it’s very exciting what we’re building, and it’s gonna be a big challenge because it’s a bigger season than Season 1, but we’ll see what happens.”
The new season of It: Welcome to Derry is already taking shape, with the creative team working on scripts and Andy Muschietti involved in casting. Kane confirmed that the scripts are about halfway finished and that Season 2 has the green light to move forward. There’s no release date to report just yet, but the show is actively moving ahead to the delight of Penny Loafers and Derry Heads everywhere (I don’t know if fans are really called that, but I like to think so).
The biggest change for Season 2 is the setting. While the first season took place in 1962, the next chapter jumps back to 1935, during the Great Depression. The story will revolve around the Bradley Gang massacre, a bloody piece of Derry’s history drawn from King’s original 1986 novel It.
For anyone unfamiliar with that part of the book, the Bradley Gang is a group of bank robbers who arrive in Derry to buy ammunition. Their visit ends in horrific violence, with Pennywise’s influence hanging over the events. It’s another chance for the series to explore the town’s long history of bloodshed, rather than simply revisiting the familiar story of children being terrorized by a clown.
Kane describes the season as a Warner Bros. gangster movie, with bank robbers, people living in Hoovervilles, street urchins riding the rails, and religious fundamentalism all playing into the period setting like this was Jack Nicholson in Weeds all over again. That sounds like a very different kind of Derry from the suburban nightmare we saw in Season 1, even if the town’s appetite for tragedy remains the same. I truly like this road the show is about to roll down. Sounds like a lot of fun, and it’s decidedly different from what other horror streamers are currently giving us. I better hurry up and finish those last two episodes.
The Depression-era backdrop also gives the series room to explore a harsher chapter of Derry’s past. The Bradley Gang story is one of the disturbing historical incidents connected to the town in King’s novel, and it fits the show’s larger approach of digging into the catastrophes that occur whenever Pennywise’s cycle of terror returns.
The biggest question is what Kane means when he promises a Pennywise unlike anything we’ve seen before. The character has already gone through some pretty disturbing transformations in the films and first season, so simply making the clown scarier might not be enough to justify that tease. Whether the change involves his appearance or just his bad behavior remains to be seen. But it probably means we’re going to get a whole new series of Funko Pops for the well-merchandised Clown. This dude basically runs Ross Dress 4 Less during the Halloween season (I’m personally sick of seeing his cute little face beaming at me whenever I go to buy new socks, but don’t tell him I said that).
Bill Skarsgård is returning to the role, so fans can expect the actor’s take on Pennywise to remain at the center of the series. What Kane’s comments suggest is that the show intends to find new ways to use the character rather than simply repeat the same tricks.
With Season 2 set 27 years before the events of the first season, It: Welcome to Derry is continuing its journey through the town’s darkest chapters. This time, the setting is 1935, with Pennywise bringing something new to this wild prohibition era party.
