The first season of HBO’s hit horror series It: Welcome to Derry reached its terrifying conclusion on December 14. A new and unsettling teaser released just ahead of the finale gave fans a look at the forces plaguing the town and the story’s connection to the future Losers’ Club.
The show, a prequel to the popular It films, takes viewers back to Derry, Maine in 1962. It explores the dark history of the town and the early activities of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, again played by Bill Skarsgård. The finale provided major answers and set the stage for potential future seasons.
The Finale’s Release and How to Watch
The eighth and final episode of the season, titled “Winter Fire,” became available on Sunday, December 14. It premiered on the HBO cable channel and started streaming on Max at the same time.
For viewers in the United States, the episode went live at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. This corresponded to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. In the United Kingdom, the episode was available to watch on Sky Max and the streaming service NOW TV. The show’s entire first season is now available to stream on Max.
Recapping the Full First Season Schedule
The series premiered just in time for Halloween, with the first episode arriving on October 26, 2025. New episodes were released weekly on Sunday nights. The season told its story across eight episodes.
Below is the complete release schedule for Season 1:
- Episode 1: “The Pilot” – Aired October 26, 2025
- Episode 2: “The Thing in the Dark” – Aired October 31, 2025
- Episode 3: “Now You See It” – Aired November 9, 2025
- Episode 4: “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet’s Function” – Aired November 16, 2025
- Episode 5: “29 Neibolt Street” – Aired November 23, 2025
- Episode 6: “In the Name of the Father” – Aired November 30, 2025
- Episode 7: “The Black Spot” – Aired December 7, 2025
- Episode 8: “Winter Fire” – Aired December 14, 2025
The Story of Welcome to Derry
It: Welcome to Derry serves as a direct prequel to the events of the 2017 film It and its 2019 sequel, It Chapter Two. The story is set 27 years before the first film, following a new group of residents in the cursed town.
The series focuses on a family new to Derry and other townspeople as they encounter a wave of disturbing disappearances and supernatural events. Their investigations lead them to the early presence of Pennywise, the ancient entity that feeds on fear and takes the form of a clown to lure its prey. The show expands the mythology of Stephen King’s universe by showing how deep the evil in Derry is rooted.
“His experience of time is non-linear. How is that and why, that’s a whole exploration that we intend to flesh out,” said producer and director Andy Muschietti, discussing the creature’s nature.
Major Cast and Creative Team
The series brings together a mix of new faces and familiar talent from the It films. Bill Skarsgård returns to his iconic role as the voice and performer behind Pennywise. He also serves as an executive producer on the series.
The main cast includes Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, and Chris Chalk as residents grappling with the town’s horrors. They are joined by James Remar, Stephen Rider, and Madeleine Stowe.
The show was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, who were all central to the recent It film adaptations. Andy and Barbara Muschietti are executive producers through their Double Dream production company. Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane are the series’ co-showrunners.
What the Finale Revealed About Pennywise and the Future
The season finale, “Winter Fire,” provided significant revelations that connect the series directly to the films. A key discovery is that the entity Pennywise experiences time differently from humans, perceiving past, present, and future simultaneously.
This explains a major plot point: Pennywise’s actions in 1962 are partly driven by its knowledge of a future event. The entity knows it will be defeated by the Losers’ Club in 1989. In the finale, it is revealed that Pennywise has been targeting a character named Marge, who is the mother of Richie Tozier (played by Finn Wolfhard in the films). This is an attempt to alter the future and prevent its own death.
The finale strongly suggests that if the story continues, Pennywise will continue moving backward in time to target the ancestors of the other Losers’ Club members. This sets up a clear path for future seasons.
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Plans for Potential Future Seasons
While HBO has not yet officially announced a second season, the creative team has a detailed plan for continuing the story. Producer Andy Muschietti has confirmed that a second and third season are mapped out.
If the series continues, the story will move backward through Derry’s history, following Pennywise’s 27-year cycles of awakening. The planned setting for a second season is 1935. A potential third season would jump back another 27 years to 1908.
These future seasons would explore more of Pennywise’s origins and the nature of its non-linear existence. Muschietti has stated the show aims to answer a central question: “Is [It] going backwards in a linear way, or is he omnipresent, and how does that affect the story that we already know?”
The first season of It: Welcome to Derry is now streaming in its entirety on Max.
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