Netflix
"Locke and Key"
- An adaptation of the "Locke and Key" comic book has been in development for a decade.
- The TV series finally lands at Netflix on Friday after Hulu passed on its pilot in 2018.
- Showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill talked to Business Insider about why the Hulu version of the show leaned more into horror, while the Netflix version relies more on the comic's fantasy elements.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
"Locke and Key" has had a long journey to the screen.
The new Netflix series is based on the 2008 IDW comic book by writer Joe Hill (the son of horror author Stephen King) and artist Gabriel Rodríguez. It follows a family who moves from Seattle to the father's mysterious childhood home in Massachusetts after he's murdered, where the kids discover magic keys.
The adaptation finally hits the streaming giant on Friday after a decade in development, during which it's been a TV pilot for Fox, a potential film trilogy for Universal, and a prospective series for Hulu. After Hulu passed on its "Locke and Key" pilot in 2018, Netflix swooped in.
Netflix
"Locke and Key" follows a family who discover magic keys at the father's childhood home.
"I knew the project was really good and I had faith that this material was worthy of getting made," Carlton Cuse, one of the showrunners, told Business Insider.
Prior to the series landing at Netflix, a pilot was finished and seven additional scripts were written in the Hulu writers' room. But the show "started from scratch" after Netflix picked it up to series, Cuse said.
It all started from a shift in tone.
"It's like pulling a thread from a tapestry," Cuse said of the tone change. "It immediately has repercussions that exist beyond that thread. As we recalibrated the tone, everything changed. We wrote a whole new set of scripts for the Netflix version."
The biggest change in tone was regarding the horror elements of the comic book, which Cuse and his coshowrunner, Meredith Averill, told Business Insider were more prominent in the Hulu version. The Netflix version leans more into the fantasy elements of the comic, they said.
Netflix
Emilia Jones and Jackson Robert Scott as Kinsey and Bode Locke
"With horror, once you go there, it's hard to be lighter and tell the stories with the young kids coming of age," Averill said. "The kids discovering who they are through the discovery of the keys drives the whole show, so once we were locked into that theme, we didn't feel like it needed to be a straight-up horror series."
"I think the version that got made for Netflix is the right version and one that we're very proud of," Cuse added.
Once Cuse and Averill settled on the right tone for the show, they said Netflix was supportive of the decision.
"It would be easy for an exec to say 'more horror' or 'more blood,' but they've never pushed us in a single direction," Averill said. "They only asked what show we wanted to make and how they could help us make it."
Netflix
The Key House of "Locke and Key" was built for the series.
Averill is no stranger to Netflix or TV shows featuring spooky houses, having executive produced Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House." She said Hill House was "a reference point" for the Key House of "Locke and Key," but they also wanted the latter to feel like a house someone would use for an Airbnb.
"Hill House was not that," she said, adding that there are many "Easter eggs" in the Key House that make it special, such as Kinsey Locke's (Emilia Jones) room having wallpaper in the shape of a key.
As for the house itself, Cuse said it was built for the series, which was filmed in Canada, after a long search for the right house that turned up nothing.
"That was a huge advantage of doing this for Netflix," Cuse said. "The show was way too expansive for network TV and there's too much story for a two-hour movie. It took Netflix for this show to find its proper home. They gave us the time, creative freedom, and financial resources."
Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Insider Inc.'s parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
