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Excitement is building for the horror series It: Welcome to Derry, which is receiving positive feedback and weaving in references from additional King stories. Following the premiere, the network declared that the second installment will debut sooner than expected, released fittingly for the spookiest night.

Premiere Shift Details

Starting on the last day of October at 12 a.m. Pacific Time, the second episode of It: Welcome to Derry will launch on HBO Max, before its linear broadcast. Future chapters of the series run will continue to air on Sundays on both HBO and its streaming arm, building toward the season finale on December 14th.

Show Background

Taking place within Stephen King’s It universe, It: Welcome to Derry borrows elements from the classic book while enlarging the setting brought to life by the It movie director in the two It films. It Chapter One focused on adolescents facing terrifying threats, so it’s fitting that this show follows in those footsteps. Nevertheless, the premiere episode of the HBO series shows it aimed to increase the tension, providing more frightening moments than Muschietti’s films and creating a brutal tone for the rest of the season.

Setting and Themes

Located in the early '60s, the program features a new generation of grown-ups and kids residing in a outwardly charming locale concealing a sinister core. The town operates on a vicious, repeating pattern—one marked by hostility, discrimination, and otherworldly forces, as a monstrous presence reappears once every three decades. While Welcome to Derry might sound like it skews too close to the cinematic adaptations at first, what differentiates the digital program is its two-sided viewpoint—narrated via the perspectives of kids and grown-ups simultaneously. Younger characters are especially susceptible to It's terror, but grown-ups don't escape confronting their personal demons born from local discrimination and hidden paranormal elements.

It: Welcome to Derry debuts on October 31 at midnight PT.