Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming horror series, Locke & Key, based on the graphic novel by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. The trailer is our first look at the long-overdue adaptation of the series, and it shows off a series that looks close to what we saw in the original comics.
The graphic novels follow the three children (Bode, Tyler, and Kinsey) of the Locke family, who move to their ancestral home in Lovecraft, Maine after their father is murdered. While there, they discover that the house is full of old keys, and that inserting one into a lock will impart the user with certain powers. Some keys will turn their wielder into ghosts, give them wings, turn them into giants, turn them older, younger, into animals, and so forth.
As they explore, they discover that the house and their family holds some very dark secrets, and that there is an ancient, otherworldly evil lurking below the house, waiting to be unlocked from its prison.
In the trailer, we see much of the Locke’s wonderfully Gothic Keyhouse and a couple of the keys in action, as Bode turns himself into a spirit, and discovers that there’s a spirit hiding deep in a well on the property.
The series stars Darby Stanchfield (Scandal) as Nina Locke, Jackson Robert Scott (IT and IT 2) as Bode Locke, Connor Jessup (American Crime) as Tyler Locke, Emilia Jones (Horrible Histories) as Kinsey Locke, Bill Heck (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) as Rendell Locke, and Laysla De Oliveira (In the Tall Grass) as Dodge.
An adaptation of the graphic novels (which ran from 2008 through 2013) has been long in the making. In 2011, Fox announced that it had picked up the rights to produce a TV series, and filmed a pilot. However, it passed on that project (the pilot was later screened at San Diego Comic-con in 2011), and the rights then went to Universal, which intended to make a film series. That project never went anywhere, and in 2017, Hulu planned its own TV series, filmed its own pilot, which it later dropped. Finally, Netflix picked up the project, and produced the whole series, announcing last year that it would debut on February 7th.
After all that, the trailer looks as though it follows the look and feel of the comics, although Hill told me last year that there will be “some curveballs thrown in” to surprise readers. Hopefully, it’ll live up to the graphic novels.
Looks like Netflix has posted the first scene from the show, as well!
