As he flies solo to take the reins on Season 2 of It: Welcome to Derry, Brad Caleb Kane is ready to give fans a whole new version of Pennywise.
The showrunner teased to Deadline that the killer clown (played by Bill Skarsgård) is depicted in a “way you’ve never seen that character before,” with the sophomore season being “bigger” than Season 1 of the HBO series.
“We’re writing the scripts. We’re about halfway through the writing of the scripts,” said Kane. “We have a production schedule, we’re greenlit for a Season 2, and Andy Muschietti’s out there casting.”
Set amid the Great Depression in 1935, Season 2 revolves around the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror, another piece of morbid town history depicted in King’s 1986 novel.
Kane added, “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.”
With Season 1 set in 1962, each season of It: Welcome to Derry will go back another 27 years to coincide with Pennywise’s appearances in the titular Stephen King-created town.
Following a series-high audience of 6.5M U.S. users for its Season 1 finale in its first three days, It: Welcome to Derry was renewed for Season 2 in August, with Kane taking over sole showrunner duties from his Season 1 partner Jason Fuchs.
Meanwhile, Kane’s other horror prequel series Crystal Lake is now available to stream on Peacock, telling the origin story of Friday the 13th killer Jason Voorhees and mother Pam (Linda Cardellini).
