IT: WELCOME TO DERRY Creators Say Pennywise Will Weaponize Fiath and Love in Future Seasons
HBO still hasn’t officially renewed IT: Welcome to Derry, but let’s be honest, that announcement feels more like a matter of timing than possibility. The series pulled horror fans right back into Stephen King’s nightmare town, and the creative team already seems to know exactly where they want to go next.
Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti have previously talked about the idea of future seasons traveling further back through Derry’s twisted history, following Pennywise’s 27-year cycle of terror.
One of those future stories, which is coming with Season 2, will dive into the gangster era of the 1930s, which feels like the perfect playground for a shape-shifting nightmare clown.
Now the sibling filmmakers are opening up a little more about the bigger ideas they want the series to explore moving forward, and it sounds like the horror is about to become a lot more psychological.
In an interview with IndieWire, Andy Muschietti reflected on how the first season’s themes ended up feeling strangely connected to the world we’re living in right now, even though the story is rooted in Cold War paranoia.
“We live in a time where fearmongering is practiced a lot. People should know that it’s a construction—not everything that comes from ‘up there’ is true. It’s orchestrated to divide us and make us fear each other for profit.”
That idea was baked deep into Season 1. Pennywise, played once again by Bill Skarsgård, thrives on panic and manipulation, feeding off terrified children while Derry slowly collapses under pressure.
At the same time, there was the military storyline that added another layer to the nightmare through Major Hanlon, played by Jovan Adepo, and General Shaw, played by James Remar.
By the end of the season, Shaw’s plan becomes horrifyingly clear. He wants to harness Pennywise’s ability to generate fear and turn it into a weapon that could control the American public itself. Naturally, things spiral into disaster.
According to Muschietti, the first season revolved around “the weaponization of fear.” But future seasons won’t stop there. The filmmakers are now planning to widen the scope with themes involving “the weaponization of faith” and “the weaponization of love.”
That opens the door to all kinds of disturbing possibilities for Welcome to Derry. Pennywise has always preyed on emotional vulnerability, but shifting into faith and love could make the series hit in even more uncomfortable ways.
Fear is immediate. Faith and love are personal. Corrupting those emotions could take Pennywise’s influence to another jacked-up level entirely.
Barbara Muschietti also connected those themes directly to the current state of the world, saying: “We are living in a world where the weaponization of fear is something that has to be fought daily. If we are not aware, and if we don’t fight it, we will succumb like Derry.”
IT has always been about more than a killer clown. The monster works because it feeds on the uglier parts of humanity that already exist under the surface.
I loved Season 1 of the show and I’m excited to see how the stories unfold for the upcoming seasons!