HBO's It Spinoff Releases Next Ahead of Schedule on HBO Max
Fans are eagerly awaiting for the horror series It: Welcome to Derry, which is garnering praise and incorporating themes from other Stephen King works. Now, HBO has revealed that episode two will premiere ahead of schedule, released fittingly for October 31st.
Schedule Change Details
Kicking off on October 31 at 12 a.m. Pacific Time, episode two of It: Welcome to Derry will launch on HBO Max, before its traditional TV airing. Future chapters of the eight-episode season will premiere on Sundays on both HBO and its streaming arm, leading up to the final episode on December 14th.
Series Overview
Taking place within Stephen King’s It universe, Welcome to Derry draws from the classic book while building upon the world established by director Andy Muschietti in the recent movie adaptations. It Chapter One highlighted young characters confronting supernatural evils, so it’s fitting that the series continues that tradition. Yet, the first installment of the HBO series proves it set out to raise the stakes, providing heightened horror than the cinematic versions and creating a brutal tone for what's to come.
Setting and Themes
Taking place in the 1960s, the program presents a different group of grown-ups and kids residing in a seemingly idyllic town hiding a dark secret. This place functions through a brutal, periodic loop—one marked by hostility, discrimination, and otherworldly forces, as a terrifying being reappears each 27-year cycle. Although the series might seem like it skews too close to the movies on the surface, what differentiates the HBO Max series is its two-sided viewpoint—told from the perspectives of kids and grown-ups at the same time. Younger characters remain particularly vulnerable to It's terror, but grown-ups don't escape confronting their personal demons stemming from local discrimination and lurking supernatural forces.
The series premieres on the 31st of October at 3 a.m. EST.
