While there’s been no official HBO confirmation that It: Welcome to Derry is returning, the show’s popularity means more is all but guaranteed. Two of the show’s main architects, sibling team Andy and Barbara Muschietti, have long spoken about moving backward in time for the next Welcome to Derry season (or seasons), in keeping with Pennywise’s 27-year hibernation cycle. More recently, Andy Muschietti honed in on the stories they hope to explore (yep, it’s 1930s gangsters). And now, the Muschiettis have said a little more about the themes they’re planning on digging into. Speaking to Indiewire, the duo looked back at season one and acknowledged how much its tone mirrors the political climate of today, despite being set very specifically during the Cold War. “We live in a time where fearmongering is practiced a lot,” Andy Muschietti said. “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 outlook was mirrored in It: Welcome to Derry‘s first season. Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) emerges to terrorize the kids in Derry, and we hear a lot about how he feeds on the fear he generates. That’s why the military summons Major Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), newly recovered from a head injury that diminished his ability to feel fear, to work on a special project with General Shaw (James Remar).
