Netflix's adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's Locke & Key is back with season 2 and the stakes are higher than ever. Picking up months after the events of season 1, the titular family will find their battle with the evil demon Dodge reignited as it takes on the form of daughter Kinsey's boyfriend Gabe, who works with the recently possessed Eden to craft new magical keys for a mysterious and malevolent purpose.
Ahead of the series' return, Screen Rant got the opportunity to speak exclusively with stars Connor Jessup and Darby Stanchfield to discuss Locke & Key season 2, the difficulty of exploring their characters' emotional journeys, and more.
Screen Rant: Locke & Key season 2 is such a fun and exciting expansion on what season 1 already was. What were some of the biggest creative challenges for you both coming into this season for each of your characters?
Darby Stanchfield: I'd say one for my character, Nina Locke, was a new love interest [who] is introduced this season. There was an initial feeling of how do I seamlessly move from season 1's hardcore grief and all of the different intricacies of that into organically finding this headspace where her head is suddenly turned by another person and that she's in a space where she is ready to meet someone.
The grief for Nina is not done in season 2, so how to sort of combine the two, how to thread the two together so that it's grounded in that and then it actually feels like it works. Brandon Hines, who plays Josh Bennett, is a fantastic actor, I had a fantastic time with him, so you know that always makes it easy when you have a natural chemistry with someone. But I'd say that was probably the biggest challenge.
Connor Jessup: I realized when we started shooting season 2 how much of Tyler in season 1 was propelled by this feeling of loss and guilt that he carried with him so heavily. It was so present and it colored so much of who he was that to start season 2 without a lot of that, in a much lighter and warmer and more relaxed place, was actually weirdly challenging because it's like as the season goes on, tension grows and suddenly things explode and things become much more intense and much much darker again.
But there's this window at the beginning where things seem to be going well and I always find, it's kind of counterintuitive maybe, but I always find the hardest scenes as an actor are scenes where you're doing okay. Because you're not fighting against anything, you know? I think it took me a moment to find my footing at the beginning of season 2, to feel how Tyler was when he wasn't fighting against something, so that was an interesting challenge
This season does have some exciting action set pieces and more magic. What was that like for you getting to experience a lot of that firsthand on a larger scale in comparison to the first season?
Connor Jessup: I mean it's just fun to get dragged around rooms on wires. We have a sequence where we get chased by a giant spider and shockingly there was no giant spider. So we had a man with a green leotard holding what looked like one half of a green bean over his head with a face mask on because of COVID chasing us through the house and it's like if you can't find joy in that, you know, in a man crouching on the ground waving a bean at you, then you have a cold and dead heart. So it's a really fun thing to show up to work and get to do [that].
This season, we will not only see you start to grow up in terms of maturity but also an age which, as we well know, is very problematic for remembering magic. What was that like for you exploring that?
Connor Jessup: This season Tyler turns 67, it's a shocking plot twist.
Darby Stanchfield: It was something I didn't see coming.
Connor Jessup: Yeah, I know, you won't guess how we get there.
Darby Stanchfield: It's a long season. [Laughs]
Connor Jessup: Yeah, exactly, it's a long season. But yeah, when we meet Tyler at the beginning of season 1, he's already 17, he's already on the cusp of being an adult, and what that means doesn't really hit him until the beginning of season 2 when he starts to process the fact that adults don't remember magic.
I mean magic slips right off them and he realizes how much of who he is and the progress that he's made and what he cares about now is because of magic and he starts to worry about what he'll lose if these memories go away, so he becomes really focused on finding a way to keep them and it almost becomes a larger thing for him, about finding a way to hold on to this happiness that that he's created here with his family, so that's really his drive through most of season 2.
So Darby for you then, what is it like having to act like you're not seeing all this magic occur right in front of you and then immediately forget it seconds later? What is that like for you from an actor's perspective having to walk that line?
Darby Stanchfield: It's something that I think we found in season 1 and there were a lot of discussions around, "What does that look like?" and "Is there a specific moment or reaction or head jerk or whatever?" Once we found the language in season 1, it was established and so there are a number of characters who go through that rippling effect in season 2, as well as there was a camera effect that was added to really sort of help the audience show what happened.
So it's a combination of crossing that, knowing that that effect is going to be added, but also, like I said, we just sort of figured out what that amnesia looks like. I think it's a little bit different for each character, but I became familiar with it in season 1 right in the pilot after Nina goes through the mirror and Tyler saves her and she comes out on the other end having almost lost her life and all of that and then completely forgets and goes back to doing laundry.
Locke & Key season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.