Author and comic book writer Joe Hill dishes on Scott Derrickson's failed Hulu adaptation of Locke & Key. Written by Hill and published by IDW, Locke & Key was released in 2008 and concluded its thirty-seven issue run in 2013. The series was adapted into a Netflix series in 2020 and starred Emilia Jones, Connor Jessup, Jackson Robert Scott, Darby Stanchfield, Aaron Ashmore, and Laysla De Oliveira. Reception of the series was mixed, with critics praising the show's handling of themes such as trauma and loss, while criticism was levied at the teen drama and romance sub-plots. Locke & Key ran for three seasons on Netflix, with the final season debuting earlier this month.
IDW made several attempts to adapt Locke & Key for television prior to the Netflix series in 2020. In 2011 a television pilot was produced by Dreamworks TV and distributed by 20th Century Fox Television. The pilot debuted at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International and was received positively by attendees. Despite this, Fox decided against green lighting the series allegedly due to its dark content. In 2017 Hulu issued a pilot production order for Locke & Key, which was to be developed by Hill and Carlton Cuse and directed by Scott Derrickson. Derrickson had to resign from the production due to a scheduling conflict and was replaced by Andy Muschietti. In 2018 Hulu announced that it had passed on the pilot and would not be launching the series. While Locke & Key eventually got picked up by Netflix, some have wondered what the original Hill/Derrickson pilot would have turned into had the series been green-lit.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Hill discussed his time working with Derrickson on Locke & Key, which was the first time the two had collaborated together. While not divulging too many details about the pilot, he spoke positively of his experience working with Derrickson on Locke & Key and was delighted to reunite with the latter on The Black Phone, which was based on a short story by Hill. Here's what he had to say:
I became friends with Scott when he was attached to develop Locke and Key as a TV show for Hulu. Locke and Key went through several phases of development, for a while it was with Fox and later was with Hulu, before it wound up at Netflix, and Scott was intimately involved in the development of the Hulu version, and would have directed it if not for a conflict with other projects. The Black Phone, in a lot of ways, was our makeup call and it was just such a blast. Who gets to do that? I got to make a film, two of my really good friends made a great film on one of my stories, how wild is that?
It seems that Derrickson was far more involved with Hulu's Locke & Key pilot than initially suggested. It raises the question of how different the pilot would have been had Derrickson remained involved. Building on this, would Derrickson's style and direction have been significant enough to win over Hulu executives and green light the series? That question will unfortunately remain unanswered, but based on Derrickson's work on The Black Phone, Locke & Key fans could have expected something dark, harrowing, and twisted. One thing that is clear is that Hill and Derrickson work well together, which could potentially lead to future collaborations.
With Netflix no longer producing future seasons of Locke & Key, there may be the possibility of Hill and Derrickson reuniting to bring forth their collective vision of the series. However, this would most definitely be more of a long-term production given that Locke & Key season 3 was only released earlier this month, and it is unlikely that a fourth adaptation of the series would be launched this soon by Netflix or any other streaming services/studios. Furthermore, Derrickson is currently slated to direct Skydance's The Gorge, which means any collaborations with Hill will most likely be paused for the foreseeable future. For now, Locke & Key audiences will just have to settle for re-watches of the Netflix series but can rest assured that another Hill-Derrickson team-up is certainly likely.