LOCKED AND LOADED
SFX|January 2020
SFX HAVE GOT THE KEY – BUT CAN WE FIND THE SECRET TOO? WE TAKE A TRIP TO KEYHOUSE TO GO BEHIND THE SCENES ON LOCKE & KEY…
BRYAN CAIRNS
LOCKED AND LOADED
CRAFTING A SUCCESSFUL new TV series can be hellish. Case in point: Locke & Key. Based on the comic book series by scribe Joe Hill and illustrator Gabriel Rodriguez, a pilot was originally commissioned by Fox in 2010; however, the network never picked it up for a full season.

In 2017, Hulu disclosed it was developing a Locke & Key show. A year later, it passed on moving forward with the project. Most recently, Netflix announced it had ordered a 10-episode first season, which actually went into production this past summer. In retrospect, co-showrunner Meredith Averill believes their adaptation benefitted from all the creative labour pains.

“You can stand back and look at the two other versions and see what worked here and what wasn’t working,” Averill tells SFX. “What were the things we were really liking? We decided we wanted to make it more of a family drama with this coming-of-age story with our younger teen characters and focus it more on fantasy rather than horror. The comic is very much in the horror vein, which is a genre I love coming off of The Haunting Of Hill House. In many ways, it was a great training ground for this because that is a show about this family dealing with this trauma and you are unpacking the mystery of what happened to them 20 years ago.”

Premiering in February, Locke & Key follows the Lockes – Nina (Darby Stanchfield) and her three children, Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) – a family grieving over the gruesome murder of their father/ husband, Rendell (Bill Heck). They consequently relocate to their ancestral home in Massachusetts. As it turns out, the house contains numerous keys with magical properties… artifacts the siblings must protect from a conniving demon.

This story is from the January 2020 edition of SFX.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the January 2020 edition of SFX.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM SFXView All
Spooks Ghouls & Freaks Fools
SFX UK

Spooks Ghouls & Freaks Fools

WITH ITS ECLECTIC cast, broad comedy and supernatural farce, Rentaghost was a mainstay of BBC children’s TV from the late ’70s to the mid-’80s and like nothing else.

time-read
10 mins  |
May 2024
LOST IN THE SHADOWS
SFX UK

LOST IN THE SHADOWS

THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS OF INTERDIEW WITH THE DAMPIRE DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF LESTAT, LOUIS, CLAUDIA AND WHERE THE ANNE RICE UNIVERSE IS HEADING

time-read
8 mins  |
May 2024
NINE LIVES
SFX UK

NINE LIVES

ON SET FOR THE FINAL SERIES OF INSIDE NO 9. STEVE PEMBERTON AND REECE SHEARSMITH REFLECT ON THE TYRANNY OF THE TWIST

time-read
9 mins  |
May 2024
NOA'S ARC
SFX UK

NOA'S ARC

CAESAR'S STORY MAY BE DONE AND DUSTED, BUT AS HIS CREATORS RICK JAFFA AND AMANDA SILVER TELL US, THERE'S STILL PLENTY OF TERRAIN TO EXPLORE IN - KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

time-read
7 mins  |
May 2024
TICKET TO RIDE
SFX UK

TICKET TO RIDE

DIRECTOR BEN CHESSELL TAKES THE TARDIS BACK IN TIME IN HIS TWO EPISODES

time-read
7 mins  |
May 2024
SERVING FACE
SFX UK

SERVING FACE

HAIR AND MAKE-UP DESIGNER CLAIRE WILLIAMS ON NEW LOOKS

time-read
4 mins  |
May 2024
BABY BOOM
SFX UK

BABY BOOM

The TARDIS lands on a spaceship. It was very, very hard to shoot. We used real babies! I like to do things that I’ve never done before and sometimes that’s quite hard, with such a long career as mine.

time-read
6 mins  |
May 2024
BOXING CLEVER
SFX UK

BOXING CLEVER

DOCTOR WHO IS BACK AND THIS TIME IT'S TAKING OVER THE PLANET

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2024
WELCOME HOME
SFX UK

WELCOME HOME

THE CREATIVE MINDS BEHIND THE LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATION OF THE FALLOUT GAME SERIES EXPLAIN THEIR ORIGINAL TAKE ON BETHESDA'S POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD

time-read
8 mins  |
April 2024
MONSTERS INC
SFX UK

MONSTERS INC

THE TITANS UNITE IN HOT COLLAB GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE

time-read
7 mins  |
April 2024