Welcome to Derry Season 2: The Dark True Story Behind the Bradley Gang and Pennywise’s Return

Season 2 of Welcome to Derry will delve deeper into the city’s brutal history, with a central focus on the Bradley Gang—a notorious group of outlaws whose real-life counterparts inspired Stephen King’s fictionalized version. The gang was briefly mentioned in It’s historical interludes, tied to a horrific 1930s massacre, but King never expanded on their story.

Now, creator Andy Muschietti has confirmed to Deadline that Season 2 will transport viewers back to the Great Depression era, revealing Pennywise’s exploits during this turbulent time.

“We’re now working on it, and it’s so much fun,” Muschietti said. “For the ones of you who read the books, probably the Bradley Gang sounds familiar. The Bradley Gang was a gang of bank robbers that — not accidentally, but they were on their way somewhere and they stopped in Derry to buy some ammo and something horrible happens.”

The Bradley Gang is based on the real-life Brady Gang, a short-lived group of Depression-era criminals gunned down by law enforcement in Bangor, Maine—close to Derry. Their robberies fueled fears of lawlessness during the Great Depression, but King reimagined their fate: ambushed and killed by Derry’s townsfolk, sparking a new feeding cycle for Pennywise.

While the Bradley Gang will anchor the plot of Welcome to Derry Season 2, the season will also explore a far darker chapter in the city’s past—one ripe for Pennywise’s influence. Fear, chaos, and trauma were abundant during this era, providing the perfect conditions for the clown’s return.

“It’s fascinating because the thing that is so much fun in this stage of development is that we’re facing an era which is the Depression era that changes dramatically the setup of things,” Muschietti explained. “There’s no suburban comfort — the trope of the kids that live in suburbia and they ride their bikes and suddenly one of them disappears is nothing like this. This is in 1935. It’s a very dire situation. People are very poor. They’re struggling to survive, so the setup will be very different.”