It: Welcome to Derry has been given a new trailer ahead of its premiere, and fans have a terrifying theory after seeing the new footage, but it could be misdirection…
The HBO series is a prequel to the two horror movies from director Andy Muschietti, based on Stephen King’s iconic novel of the same name.
While the films followed the Losers Club in the 1980s and the present day, the new series will explore Pennywise the Dancing Clown’s history in the infamous town.
Eagle-eyed viewers spotted a detail in the new trailer for It: Welcome to Derry which suggests the show might adapt a truly horrific moment from King’s universe.
It: Welcome to Derry trailer theory debunked
The grisly new trailer for It: Welcome to Derry gleefully showcases the horrors that are waiting for viewers, and fans on Reddit picked up on a curious blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment towards the end of the footage.
It shows off a group of masked men arriving in trucks at an unknown location in the dark, and they’re all carrying guns. Clearly, they’re up to no good — and the man at the front is wearing a Dracula mask, just in case you needed any further evidence that he’s a villain.
Reddit commenters were quick to debate whether the shot of the masked men means the show will depict the Bradley Gang Massacre.
The brutal event took place in the 1930s when the gang arrived in town to hide from the FBI, but saw an opportunity to rob the store owners in the town centre. They were then ambushed by the Derry residents in a shootout, and the gang were all killed.
However, because It: Welcome to Derry is set during the 1960s, the scene probably shows the racist cult who burn down the Black Spot, a bar that welcomed Black soldiers from the nearby army base.
Muschietti recently confirmed that It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 will focus on the Black Spot, and Season 2 will look at the Bradley Gang massacre, in the 1930s.
“So they talk about catastrophic events from the past, like the fire in the Black Spot…. the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a gang of bank robbers in the ’30s, and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks,” he told Radio TU. “We are basing the three seasons of this series on each of these catastrophic events.”