Netflix’s Locke & Key TV series has received an official poster, along with a confirmed early 2020 release date. A screen adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s comics has been in development for almost a decade, but with little to show for it so far. The project started as a TV pilot that Fox declined to pick up to series for the 2010-11 season, then evolved into a Universal movie trilogy a few years later. It changed back into a TV show once more when Hulu ordered a new pilot in 2017, only for the streamer to pass and Netflix to step in around the middle of last year.
After ordering Locke & Key to series, Netflix completely recast the show (save for IT’s Jackson Robert Scott) and reshot the Hulu pilot directed by IT 1&2 helmsman Andy Muschietti. In its current form, the show is being run by co-creators Meredith Averill and Carlton Cuse, with Jackson starring alongside Connor Jessup and Emilia Jones as the three Locke siblings at the heart of the story. It’s been close to a year since the TV series’ new cast was hired, but Locke & Key has finally gotten a firm premiere date.
The Locke & Key TV show poster dropped online today, confirming the series for a February 7, 2020 release. You can check out the one-sheet in the space below.
Like the comics, the Locke & Key series follows Bode (Scott), Tyler (Jessup), and Kinsey Locke (Jones) as the three siblings move with their mom Nina (Darby Stanchfield) to the Locke family’s ancestral house in Massachusetts, following the disturbing murder of their father. Much like the work of his own dad, Stephen King, Hill’s narrative uses supernatural horror tropes to explore themes about trauma and legacy, pitting the Locke siblings against a demon who’s after the magical keys they uncover in their new home - keys which, as the trio soon realize, are connected to the mystery of their father’s death. The Locke & Key comic books won numerous prestigious awards during their run from 2008-2013, and readily lend themselves to either a TV show and/or movie adaptation. One could fairly argue they set a high bar to clear for quality, which may help to explain why the screen adaptation has proven to be a difficult nut to crack up until this point.
Perhaps not so coincidentally, Netflix has set Locke & Key to begin streaming almost exactly one year after it premiered another TV series based on an acclaimed but (comparatively) niche comic book property, in the form of The Umbrella Academy. That somberly off-beat superhero show has gone on to become an enormous success for Netflix (case in point: season one earned higher viewership than Stranger Things’ original run), and the streamer is no doubt hopeful Locke & Key will become a similarly big hit for them. Fingers crossed, the show will prove to be worth all the trouble it took to finally become a reality.
Locke & Key begins streaming Friday, February 7, 2020 on Netflix.
Source: Netflix
