The first season of It: Welcome to Derry concluded by sealing Pennywise away, but it also opened a door to a much darker past. While HBO has not yet officially announced a second season, the show’s creators have a detailed multi-season plan. The plot for Season 2 is set to jump back 27 years to 1935, exploring an earlier feeding cycle of the ancient evil and diving deeper into the tragic origins of the creature known as Pennywise.
Series creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti have confirmed the story was designed as a three-season arc, with each chapter moving backward in time. Following the 1962 events of Season 1, the next chapter will focus on the Derry of the Great Depression era, a period marked by another infamous tragedy tied to the town’s cursed history.
The Planned 1935 Setting and Historical Horror
Season 2 of It: Welcome to Derry will be set in 1935, exactly 27 years before the events of the first season. This places the story in the middle of the Great Depression, a time of widespread fear and desperation that would provide a perfect feeding ground for an entity like Pennywise.
The season’s narrative is expected to center on a specific, violent event from Derry’s past that was referenced in Stephen King’s original novel and briefly mentioned in the films: the Bradley Gang massacre. In the book, the Bradley Gang was a group of robbers who were gunned down in a bloody shootout. Witnesses reported seeing a clown at the scene, implying Pennywise’s involvement in orchestrating or exploiting the violence for its own feeding purposes. This event would serve a similar function as the burning of the Black Spot nightclub in Season 1—a historical atrocity amplified by the creature’s influence.
“Our second season happened in 1935,” creator Andy Muschietti confirmed in an interview, directly stating the intended setting for the next chapter.
Pennywise’s Non-Linear Time and His New Mission
The Season 1 finale delivered a major revelation that redefines the entire series: Pennywise experiences time in a non-linear way. In a confrontation with young Marge Truman, the entity revealed that it sees past, present, and future simultaneously. It knows that Marge will grow up to become Margaret Tozier, the mother of Richie Tozier, and that Richie and his friends in the Losers’ Club will one day cause its demise.
This knowledge is the driving force behind the series’ unique “backwards” structure. Having seen its own future death, Pennywise is now motivated to travel further into the past. Its goal is to target the ancestors of its future enemies in an attempt to alter the timeline and prevent the Losers’ Club from ever being born. This means Season 2’s story in 1935 won’t just be a standalone period piece; it will be a deliberate attack by Pennywise on the family lines of characters fans know from the films.
“The pitch to Stephen King was we’re going to tell a story backwards, and it has to do with that hint,” Andy Muschietti explained, referring to Pennywise’s awareness of the future.
Exploring the Origins of Bob Gray and Ingrid Kersh
A major focus of the 1935 story will be exploring the human history behind the clown’s face. Viewers will learn much more about Bob Gray, the real carnival performer whom the entity encountered and killed in 1908, ultimately stealing his form and name. More importantly, the season will expand the tragic story of Ingrid Kersh, Bob Gray’s daughter.
Flashbacks in Season 1 showed a younger Ingrid (played by Tyner Rushing) working at the Juniper Hill asylum in the 1930s. After her father’s disappearance, she encountered the Pennywise entity and became convinced the monster was actually her father trapped inside. This tragic misunderstanding turned her into both a victim and a perpetrator. In a twisted effort to “free” her dad, she began luring children to the creature, believing the pain and fear would draw him out.
“She’s tricked into thinking that her dad is still there somewhere in the shadows of that monster, and she wants to liberate him,” Muschietti said of Ingrid. “She’s a very specific, very unique character, because she’s a victim, but she’s a perpetrator too”.
Season 2 will show Ingrid’s active role in 1935 Derry, likely as a new incarnation of the Pennywise clown, similar to her appearance in Season 1. Her storyline promises to add profound emotional horror to the series, detailing how a grieving woman became an accomplice to an ancient evil.
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A New Cast and Familiar Themes
A jump back to 1935 means Season 2 will feature a mostly new cast of characters facing Pennywise’s terror. However, Bill Skarsgård is expected to return as the primary face and voice of the entity. Actress Tyner Rushing would also likely reprise her role as the younger Ingrid Kersh.
The season will continue to explore the show’s core themes: generational trauma, the cyclical nature of fear, and the way societal tensions—like those of the economically strained 1930s—are manipulated by the creature. Fans can expect to see early versions of familiar Derry locations and may encounter the ancestors or younger relatives of characters from the wider Stephen King universe.
While the children of 1935 will have their own standalone battle for survival, their struggle will be directly connected to the larger war across time, as Pennywise attempts to rewrite the future by poisoning the past.
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