HBO’s IT Prequel Hits New Season 2 Milestone With Huge Stephen King Connection
HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry is keeping it all in the family for season 2.
The prequel to Stephen King’s classic horror novel, and the Muschiettis’ duology adaptation, became one of the biggest titles of 2025 as audiences poured in to see a chapter of Pennywise’s past haunting the eponymous Maine town. Nearly eight months after its initial premiere, HBO properly confirmed that IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 was moving ahead on the network, with Brad Caleb Kane returning as sole showrunner and the setting shifting to 1935 during the Great Depression.
Now, in an interview with Radio Times for his new hit horror series Crystal Lake, Kane confirmed that IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 has hit a major new milestone. With writing already deeply underway on the hit prequel, the showrunner revealed that Stephen King’s grandson, Ethan King, has joined the writing staff for the new season, praising the young writer for the abilities he’s already showing in his work:
Brad Caleb Kane: He’s brilliant and really smart. He’s a chip off the old block. You can see why the Kings are how they are. It’s definitely passed down genetically through generations.
Brad Caleb Kane: He’s brilliant and really smart. He’s a chip off the old block. You can see why the Kings are how they are. It’s definitely passed down genetically through generations.
Ethan King’s addition to the IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 writing staff marks an interesting choice for the prequel series in that, as of the time of writing, he has no major published works to his name, thus making the HBO show his writing debut. He wouldn’t be the first, though, to make their writing debut on the series, as Guadalís Del Carmen, who also worked as a story editor in season 1, made her debut co-writing episode 3, “Now You See It.”
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Brooke Palmer/HBO</figure>
With him now part of IT: Welcome to Derry season 2, the King family’s biggest tradition is continuing in a meaningful fashion as they continue their lineage of being writers. Both of King’s sons, Owen and Joe, are professional writers in the worlds of novels, graphic novels, short stories and television, with the latter, who writes under his Joe Hill pen name, having a variety of adaptations of his work, including Netflix’s Locke & Key, Shudder’s NOS4A2 and Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone movies, among others.
Ethan King joins IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 as the show enters a pivotal new era for the franchise. Kane recently offered new insight into the horror show’s shift back to 1935, confirming that it will still focus on child protagonists, but shed the suburban sheen of prior young characters. The showrunner also teased that the IT prequel is subtly changing subgenres to become more of a “Warner Bros. gangster picture” told through the lenses of Pennywise the Clown and King.
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What will now be interesting to see is how involved in the writing process Ethan King is for IT: Welcome to Derry season 2. With Kane and former co-showrunner Jason Fuchs having written a large portion of season 1 themselves, the author’s grandson may be coming onboard in a story editor or additional material capacity to start. Given there is a three-season roadmap for the show, there is also the possibility for King’s writing involvement to grow should he indeed be penning an episode in season 2, and it scores great acclaim.
It: Welcome to Derry
It: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to the 2017 film It, exploring the sinister history of Derry, Maine. Set in 1962, the series follows a family that relocates to the town amidst unsettling occurrences and the mysterious disappearance of a young boy.
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