Confirmed: ‘Locke and Key’ TV Series Dead at Hulu
It’s been a long and winding road to a proper adaptation of Joe Hill’s Locke & Key, and there may yet be more disappointment in store. Reports indicate that Hulu has passed on a pilot from It director Andrés Muschietti, leaving it uncertain the series will find a home.
First announced in 2016, the series is at least a second attempt at adapting the horror comic for TV, not including Universal’s attempt at a film with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. We’ve heard few updates on the new version since Muschietti stepped in for Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, but star Samantha Mathis reportedly told Cultured Vultures that Hulu has officially passed on the pilot:
I did a pilot for Hulu called Locke and Key but it didn’t get picked up by Hulu. It’s getting shopped around to Amazon and Netflix and Apple and everyone right now. Who knows, maybe that will end up some place … We’ll see what happens.
UPDATE: We’ve confirmed with inside sources that Hulu is “no longer moving forward with this project.” Additionally, The Hollywood Reporter notes that Hulu CEO Randy Freer made the decision to pass despite strong creative support, as the executive “ultimately did not like the show.” Hulu paid to keep the writers room open after the pilot, and seven scripts were completed. Publisher IDW is also “holding screenings for the potential series in a bid to find another home for the drama.”
Cast for the Hulu pilot included The Conjuring 2 alum Frances O’Connor, Danny Glover, Nate Corddry, Jack Mulhern, Jackson Robert Scott, Megan Charpentier, Owen Teague and more. For those unfamiliar, Locke & Key follows three siblings of the Locke family who move into their ancestral Massachusetts mansion “Keyhouse” after the brutal murder of their father; discovering many bizarre keys, a series of doors and a supernatural presence. Hill wrote the hourlong pilot’s script, as executive produced and showrun by LOST alum Carlton Cuse.
Hill was apparently ecstatic about the pilot’s prospects in early March, so stay tuned for more details on Locke & Key’s future.
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