The process of bringing the story of Joe Hill's IDW comic book series Locke and Key to the screen has been a long and complicated one. Back in 2011, Mark Romanek directed a Locke and Key TV series pilot for Fox, working from a script written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Even though the series would have been executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Fox passed on it. Kurtzman and Orci then tried to turn the story into a feature film at Universal, with Albert Torres writing the screenplay. That didn't work out. Last year, Andy Muschietti directed another Locke and Key pilot, this one made for Hulu and written by Hill with Carlton Cuse. Hulu passed.
Netflix picked up the series after Hulu turned it down, but they wanted it to be redeveloped and recast.
After all that time and effort, a Locke and Key series will finally be reaching the Netflix streaming service on February 7th.
The series has the following synopsis:
After their father is murdered under mysterious circumstances, the three Locke siblings and their mother move into their ancestral home, Keyhouse, which they discover is full of magical keys that may be connected to their father’s death. As the Locke children explore the different keys and their unique powers, a mysterious demon awakens — and will stop at nothing to steal them.
Jackson Robert Scott, Connor Jessup, and Emilia Jones play the Locke siblings Bode, Tyler, and Kinsey. They're joined in the cast by Darby Stanchfield as the Locke siblings' mother Nina, Bill Heck as the ill-fated Rendell Locke, Petrice Jones as Kinsey's horror movie nerd friend Scot, Griffin Gluck as Kinsey's friend Gabe, Thomas Mitchell Barnet as a troubled young man named Sam Lesser, Asha Bromfield as spunky horror nerd Zadie, Kolton Stewart as hockey team captain Brinker Martin, Felix Mallard as the charming Lucas Caravaggio, Eric Graise as Logan Calloway, Sherri Saum as a teacher with a mysterious history, Steven Williams as a teacher who connects with the Locke family, Hallea Jones as Eden Hawkins, Genevieve Kang as Jackie Veda, Laysla De Oliveira as a sinister demon named Dodge, and Kevin Alves as Tyler's friend Javi.
Michael Morris directed the first two episodes of the series. The Netflix version of Locke & Key was created by Hill and developed by Carlton Cuse, Aron Eli Coleite, and Meredith Averill. Hill wrote the first episode with Coleite. Cuse and Averill are the showrunners.