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Good news and bad news for fans of the Stephen King-inspired IT: Welcome to Derry (which as you probably know by now, reader, counts me in their number). After a much beloved (and widely watched) wrap-up to the first season, Pennywise fans have been hungry for news of when the show would be getting its reverse-chronological season 2, and now, we have news regarding that chapter from someone who knows the subject well: HBO's CEO, Casey Bloys.

Unfortunately, that news isn't very specific.

Bloys recently sat down for an interview with Deadline, in which the captain of starship HBO discussed the network's most popular offerings - Bill Skarsgård's return to the Pennywise role among them. And like many of the show's excited viewers, it seemed that Bloys's interviewer was wondering just when the hell a new season would start filming, going so far as to ask if the series was in limbo. 

"Let me say," began Bloys, "Not in limbo at all. Hardly. It was a huge success for us. And Andy [Muschietti] and Barbara [Muschietti] are hard at work trying to come up with an idea for a story they’d want to tell for another season. I would happily do it."

You can probably tell just by the tone of this piece, reader, that there's a 'but' on the way. And here it is:

"One of the challenges is," continued Bloys, "There’s not a book that you’re basing it on, so it’s invention. They want to make sure that they have a story they’re excited to tell. So it’s not limbo other than they need to land on something they’re excited by creatively. We’ll be there."

Fair enough, Casey, though we're hoping that the time and money that the Muschiettis need to do just that are being given them. After all, Pennywise might be able to wait 27 years before his next foray into our world - we're on a much more truncated timeline.

IT: Welcome to Derry season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.