It: Welcome To Derry Just Sneakily Set Up Season 2 (And Possibly More)

Beep beep, this article contains major spoilers for the "It: Welcome to Derry" season 1 finale.

All's well that ends well, right? Our new Losers Club in "It: Welcome to Derry" has successfully vanquished their enemy and condemned him to another 27 years in hibernation. The biggest (human) villain in the story, General Shaw (James Remar), finally got what was coming to him, putting an ignominious end to what has to go down as one of the U.S. military's most foolhardy missions in history — which, it should go without saying, is a very long list. And on top of it all, the pieces have been carefully put into place elsewhere in Derry, setting up the chessboard for what's inevitably to come in the future as the events of both "It" movies loom large on the not-so-distant horizon. Wrap it up, job well done, and good night.

Or not. While the 1960s-set storyline comes to a satisfying ending, that doesn't necessarily appear to be the end of the line for "Welcome to Derry." In a scene that explains why Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) has such a fixation on Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James), we discover that the killer clown perceives time nonlinearly. He acts confused as to the circumstances of his birth and his death (which he's well aware of), which has a deeply unsettling effect on both Marge (Matilda Lawler) and Lily (Clara Stack). In the final moments of the episode, the two friends speculate about whether Pennywise has the ability to travel back further in time and attempt to kill those who might pose a risk to him in the future — their parents, perhaps, or others they can't even imagine.

With this moment, "Welcome to Derry" implicitly teases how it could continue in season 2 and beyond.

You have to hand it to creators Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs: They couldn't have planned out "It: Welcome to Derry" any better. We know they pitched this series as a trilogy (of sorts) meant to unfold over three seasons and diving further into the past each time. And while season 2 hasn't been officially announced just yet (though season 1 ends with an "It: Welcome to Derry — Chapter One" title card all but confirming it), we're starting to see how this could happen. Throughout season 1, the HBO series took viewers to different points in Derry's history. Much was made of It's first time adapting his Pennywise form, but the roots of the creature's evil goes back much further to the land's original Indigenous population. It's easy to imagine even more flashbacks set during these time periods, filling in the gaps and fleshing out details not covered or merely teased in season 1.

But the real potential for future seasons hinges on that conversation between Lily and Marge. After all, the twist that Pennywise is aware that Marge will eventually give birth to Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard and Bill Hader in the movies) raises all sorts of possibilities. This suggests Pennywise woke up at the start of season 1 with the express purpose of preventing his own demise by terrorizing these specific kids. Given how this doesn't exactly work out for our favorite cosmic horror, what's stopping him from trying again 27 years further back? Or another 27 years before that, and so on? Most shows only dream of a backdoor sequel setup this natural, so here's hoping HBO takes full advantage.

"It: Welcome to Derry" is available to stream on HBO Max.