In the wake of the Netflix adaptation of the horror comic Locke & Key, series creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez have announced they have begun work on a new one-shot of the long-running comic book series. The duo also teased another full volume to follow. The planned additions will include the first full-length volume in the Locke & Key universe since 2013 when the miniseries Alpha and Omega completed the series' primary story arc.
The IDW series first released as a miniseries in 2008, titled Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, which established the main characters and setting. The series, which chronicles the tragedy-stricken Locke family and their ancestral home filled with mysterious locked doors and magical keys, built from there with five more volumes. Since Alpha and Omega, the title has only appeared on three one-shots: Small World, Nailed It, and 2019's Dog Days. Hill is currently writing the one-shot, titled Locke & Key: Battalions, and is in the conceptual stage for the six-issue miniseries, which he referred to as World War Key.
Syfy reports that artist Rodriguez and author Hill met with the showrunners from Netflix, Meredith Averill and Carlton Cuse, at a press event at Netflix headquarters in Hollywood. During the event, Rodriguez described "a process of pitching each other for years" that led to the new storylines. He and author Hill explained that the lack of content has been a combination of the two's preoccupation with other projects across various media as well as a desire to tell a "meaningful story" when the time came rather than continuing the series for its own sake. At the same time, the duo cited the Netflix series as the catalyst behind the new material. They consulted with the showrunners on elements added to the TV series, the most prominent of which is the Mirror Key, a key that is entirely original to the pilot episode.
According to Hill, Battalions is set at the beginning of the 20th century, placing it among the other one-shots as prequels that expand upon the history of Locke & Key universe rather than continuing where the original series left off. At the same time, the writer confided that "it will take the series in a really interesting direction — a direction that it's never gone before." Hill described World War Key in a similar vein, saying that it involves characters from Open the Moon and Small World, two of the smaller post-2013 stories.
This is great news for longtime fans of the series who have been voraciously consuming L&K material the moment it's released, as well as audiences looking for more after watching Locke & Key on Netflix. This is also a promising sign for the show's future, as the first season covered nearly everything in the original volumes of the comic book. A second season is unofficially in the works, and while it is likely to focus on creating new chapters in the lives of the Locke family, the expansion of the source material is another indication that the series has many more doors left to open.
Source: Syfy