Welcome to Derry Season 2 Set in 1935 Bradley Gang Era

Andy Muschietti, creator and director of the HBO prequel series Welcome to Derry, provided new details on the show's second season during a panel at Deadline's Contenders TV event on Sunday. The upcoming installment, set in 1935 amid the Great Depression, will center on the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers from Stephen King's 1986 novel It whose story the series aims to expand.

Muschietti explained that the narrative draws from a subplot in the book, where the Bradleys, inspired by the real-life Brady Gang, stop in the fictional town of Derry to purchase ammunition en route to another destination. "Something horrible happens," he said, describing the event as a massacre that serves as the season's central act of violence. The Brady Gang, a historical band of robbers, met their end in a 1930s FBI ambush in Bangor, Maine, an incident King referenced in crafting his characters. In the series, this confrontation will highlight the entity's pervasive influence in Derry, much like the Black Spot fire and movie theater massacre depicted in Season 1.

The 1935 timeline marks a significant shift from the 1962 setting of the first season, stripping away the suburban normalcy familiar...