It: Welcome to Derry surprised the world with a special episode released on Halloween, and as good as it is, it changes the future of the show in a huge way. One of the most anticipated TV shows of 2025, and one that went above and beyond expectations, is HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry, a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s It and It Chapter Two movies, based on Stephen King’s famous 1986 novel It. As a prequel, It: Welcome to Derry is set in 1962, with every following season going 27 years back.
Thanks to this plan, It: Welcome to Derry will explore the backstory of Derry and the creature known as It. Season 1 followed some characters linked to the Losers, such as Mike’s father and Richie’s mother, along with The Shining’s Dick Hallorann. For its second season, Welcome to Derry will go back to 1935 during the Great Depression, focusing on the group of bank robbers known as the Bradley Gang, who find themselves in a brutal massacre that changed Derry’s history.
At the time of writing, It: Welcome to Derry season 2 doesn’t have a release date yet, though it’s expected to arrive in late 2027 or early 2028, but in the meantime, HBO Max treated viewers to a special prequel episode released on Halloween 2026. The episode expands on a part of Derry and It’s history that was addressed in season 1, and as good as the story is, it changes the show’s future by using a story that should have been the core of an entire season.
It: Welcome to Derry’s Special Episode Takes The Story Of A Future Season
Titled “A Story of Derry”, Welcome to Derry’s special episode goes many more years back and focuses on the Native American tribe introduced in season 1 whose descendants explained to the main characters about It’s pattern and what their efforts to contain the creature have been about. Concerned about the possibility of settlers messing with the creature and unleashing it, Necani (Kiawentiio), along with Kino (Isabel Deroy-Olson) and Maneese (Michael Podemski), go into the forest against the orders of their leader, Sesqui (Morningstar Angeline), Necani’s mother.
The trio comes across Mitig (Zahn McClarnon), a Native American warrior who has kept himself safe from It with a dagger he forged from the shell It arrived on Earth in. When the group finds out what Mitig’s plans for them really are, they steal the dagger and try to escape the forest. Sesqui leads a search party into the forest, but is mortally wounded during an encounter with It, leaving Necani in charge of protecting the tribe.
Thanks to the mysterious substance Mitig used to smoke to communicate with Maturin, Kino learns how to contain It in the forest, and so they use pieces of the shell at It’s crash site and bury them to trap it in the forest. The episode goes into the origins of the daggers, the tribe’s role in containing It, and how they learned about It’s origins… all of them parts of the story that were expected to be covered in a future season.
While the episode perfectly complements season 1 by going into detail of a story that was briefly mentioned but was key to the (temporary) defeat of Pennywise, it’s a part of Derry’s story that would have been better for a whole season rather than just a half-an-hour episode.
It: Welcome to Derry Still Has More To Explore About The Creature’s Past
Despite Welcome to Derry’s special episode using the story of a future season, there are still many other parts of Derry and It’s stories waiting to be explored. Season 1 already showed how It met Bob Gray and chose Pennywise as its main shape, and the special episode showed how and why It ended up on Earth, but the creature’s first murder spree and first victim haven’t been explored yet.
Other mysteries waiting to be addressed in Welcome to Derry are what It’s preferred shape was before meeting Bob Gray (supposing it had one, of course), its role in other tragic chapters of Derry’s history (such as the Kitchener Ironworks explosion), and how other Derry residents temporarily defeated the creature. It: Welcome to Derry’s special episode used a story that would have been much better suited for an entire season, but there are still many more waiting to be covered.
- Release Date
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October 26, 2025
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Andy Muschietti
