After telling the story of John Wayne Gacy, Devil in Disguise will return for a second season — but will the cast return in new roles for the Richard Ramirez-focused installment?
Chris Sullivan, Michael Angarano and James Badge Dale spoke exclusively with Us Weekly about the chances of the trio returning in new roles after news broke that Peacock is reportedly working on releasing season 2 about The Night Stalker.
“I would work with [creator] Patrick Macmanus and his team any time and anywhere,” Sullivan, 45, who played Bill Kunkle, shared.
“They create such an incredibly warm and creative environment,” Dale, 47, added.
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Angarano, 37, was on the same page after bringing Sam Amirante to life in season 1.
“As dark and harrowing as this world was, the actual work and experience with the crew and the cast and Patrick himself [was] so warm and enjoyable,” he noted. “Anytime I work with them is the best job in the world.”
Gacy was a serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered dozens of young men and boys. After he was convicted in 1980, he was sentenced to death and died by lethal injection in 1994. The limited series, which premiered on October 16, made an effort to focus on Gacy’s victims.
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy addressed the trauma inflicted on the victims’ families, named each episode after a victim of Gacy’s and questioned investigative missteps and systemic failures that led to Gacy evading the law for so long.
“I’ve always been a fan of fictional horror and the true crime fad kind of slipped itself into my love of that. Then about five years ago, I had kids and I had a realization that these are real people and real lives that are affected,” Sullivan recalled. “So my taste for true crime kind of fell by the wayside.”
Sullivan’s decision to join Devil in Disguise came from his passion for Macmanus’ vision, adding, “Before we started doing this, we spoke about how do they intend to handle this story? One of the reasons I was so excited to do it was because of the honor and care with which he was telling the story and honoring the victims. The show is being very careful not to romanticize the actual violence or the killer himself.”
Angarano had a similar connection to the direction the material was going in.
“This show takes its responsibility very seriously in what it’s putting out there. One of the main perspectives and the main focus of the show are the victims and families,” he told Us. “This format of true crime has become so part of the culture. We consume it all and there’s so much of it. One thing that’s different about the show is it doesn’t feel like it’s just consumer bait. It’s really effective in that it really makes you as a viewer. It puts you in the shoes of the families and it makes you really empathize.”
Angarano continued: “This show in particular feels incredibly sad and you really feel the ripple effect of not just the name John Wayne Gacy but the impact of the death of somebody so young and innocent. I feel like this show is very different than what’s out there currently. It is very chilling and effective in feeling the weight — the actual weight — of what people associated with this man and his crimes have gone through.”
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For the trio, there were specific days they each found difficult to film considering the subject matter.
“The first day we walked into the John Wayne Gacy house and we stood there with the floor ripped out of this house,” Sullivan said. “Looking down at all of the marked graves in the crawl space of the house was a real visual shock for me.”
Angarano, meanwhile, pointed out how the show “recreated” the infamous house, adding, “That recreation felt really eerie. There is also a lot of time and energy dedicated to the crawl space itself. And that that was a physical reminder every time you walked into that soundstage that there was about 20 or 30 feet of crawl space that they were filming.”
As for Dale, he was shocked at Michael Chernus‘ immersive portrayal of Gacy.
“We all know Chernus and what type of person he is and we know what type of great man he is. To watch him during these scenes, to be on set with him and watch him have to go to these places that he’s going to, it was a beautiful process,” the actor added. “Everyone was really respectful and we had a great culture on set. When Chris is talking about the house, when you walked into that set it was very quiet. 100 people were there on this film crew and everybody was treating it with a lot of respect as to how we’re going to handle this work.”
Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is now streaming on Peacock.
