Season 2 of Netflix's Locke & Key series has finally been given a production start date. Based on the comic book series of the same name written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key follows three young siblings as they and their mother relocate to their ancestral home, a place known as Keyhouse, following the mysterious death of their father. Once there, the siblings begin to discover magical keys scattered throughout the house, which may help them unravel the secrets surrounding their's father demise. The family runs into trouble, though, when a powerful demon awakens, intent on stealing the keys from them.
Locke & Key was welcomed with mildly positive reviews from critics when it premiered near the start of this year, and the show became a hot topic of conversation amongst readers of the original comics. Some fans argued that the show's YA fantasy tone was an inferior replacement to the darker horror elements of the source material. Meanwhile, other viewers seemed to embrace the Netflix adaptation's lighter, more fantastical take on the story. But, in spite of its slightly tepid critical response, Locke & Key was—by all other accounts—a success for Netflix, and the streamer renewed it for a second season just a little over a month after its premiere.
Today, Deadline is reporting that season 2 of Locke & Key is set to begin production later this month at the Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto, Canada. September 21st is the reported start date for filming, with the show's creative team planning on shooting the season through the end of March. That means the series will resume production almost 6 full months after Netflix gave Locke & Key its season 2 renewal back in March.
Locke & Key is now one of a growing list of TV shows and films that are either preparing to go back into production or have already restarted. Nearly every major TV network and movie studio in Hollywood has spent the past few months putting their own socially distanced, quarantine-heavy guidelines into place for their productions, but things haven't been going entirely according to plan either. While some films and shows have managed to complete production during the current Coronavirus outbreak, others have resumed production only to quickly shut down again. That very thing is happening right now with The Batman's Robert Pattinson testing positive for COVID-19. Production on the movie closed back down just a few days after it resumed filming.
All of this is to say that it's hard to know how well a six-month-long shoot will work out for Locke & Key. It could either go relatively swimmingly, or it could face the same stop-and-start rhythm that so many other productions are currently dealing with. That'd be particularly disappointing in this case, since the Locke & Key creative team have had to wait so long to start working again in the first place. One can only hope, then, that things go as according to plan as possible for the crew, and that they can get the second season done in as safe and efficient a manner as possible.
Source: Deadline