Netflix’s Locke & Key Returns With Season 2 on October 22nd
A key for you, a key for me. Keys and the magic of the keys dominate season two of Locke & Key. YEC participated in the Locke & Key virtual press day with Darby Stanchfield (Nina Locke) and Connor Jessup (Tyler Locke) providing details on what is forthcoming in this magical, horror series. Are you ready for the return to Keyhouse?
Q: If you could both tease a bit about your relationships? Conner, how your relationship with Jackie kind of affects his ability to protect the keys and everything and Darby, how your relationship with Josh kind of I guess, affects her mental health and ability to move on or not move on?
Jessup: Yeah, um, you know, at the beginning of season two, Tyler is really mostly in a pretty good place, he feels more at home, he feels more comfortable using these keys, he, his relationship with his siblings, and his entire family is better. And he’s in this relationship with Jackie now, which is a really meaningful thing for him. But hanging over both of them is the fact that they’re both about to turn 18 they’re both about to become adults, Jackie before him. And they know that and when they become adults, we know that magic slips away, you forget what you’ve seen. And he becomes very, very obsessed with the idea that losing magic, losing these memories will mean losing everything that’s good about his life now. And he and he wants to protect Jackie and he wants to find a way to keep her in his life. And he feels like if she loses magic, like in a way she’ll be lost to him too. And she has kind of a different perspective. As the show goes on, she starts to feel like maybe it’s natural to forget, you know, maybe it’s part of growing up, maybe there’s a reason why you forget and the tension between them on that. And that, that storm cloud in general became really, really important to Tyler in season two.
Stanchfield: So for Nina Locke, she meets a new man in season two of Locke and Key and his name’s Josh Bennett. And he is a teacher at, he’s a teacher at Matheson school. And what I love about this season and this relationship for Nina Locke, is that it’s not really over simplified where Nina lets go of her grief of her dead husband, Rendell Locke, and then just, you know, meets, meets a new guy and all this all is forgotten. The grief continues on it’s sort of threaded in there. Josh Bennett has also lost his wife to a sudden death experience. And so they have that in common and that’s one thing that bonds them and I something I really had fun and it was challenging to, to sort of, to weave that web of being excited about. You need to be excited about this new relationship with this new you know possibility in her life and having gone through some healing of grief, but also it’s still lingering and being a part of who she is. And so that’s, that’s really how that, what that looks like in the season.
Q: Darby, your character really doesn’t get into the magic of the series. But you got a really nice like introduction, your character guy, nice introduction at the end of season two. How does it feel to finally get into that supernatural aspect of the story? And now that season three has been greenlit do you hope that your character will get more into the magic of the keys?
Stanchfield: Yes, well, it’s me and I have interacted with magic and season one going into that mirror or when she gets drunk and she interacts with the men in the cabinet but you’re right it’s, it’s she forgets it. And what we see is something quite special at the end of season two. I won’t spoil it and say what it is but she gets an even more intense experience. we’re left in the cliffhanger will, will she remember it or not? You know, is it just gonna fall away like the other experiences? Will this somehow make her different? It was so fun to play. I really enjoy what they wrote for Nina Locke. It was and I enjoyed this story very much. We have already shot season three. So I know the answer, but I can’t say but um, that that question is really the million dollar question at the end of the show is like what’s Nina Locke’s fate after she’s sort of, you know, introduced in a bigger way into this world of magic. We all want to know.
Q: So like can you tease us anything about what’s gonna happen in season three with your character?
Jessup: I’m in season three. I’m present you know I don’t, I don’t think, I don’t think anyone watching at the end of season two. I mean, Tyler is entering a new phase of his, of his, of his life but I don’t think it feels like a conclusion you know, he’s still very much has a lot to to work through. So his story and his relationship with these keys is not over yet.
Q If either of you had the ability to make your own key in real life what would that key be?
Jessup: Think I would have an answer to this one. You have something that leaps to mind, Darby?
Stanchfield: Wow. This is a really good question. I don’t think we’ve been asked this before No. The probably the first thing that comes to mind is maybe something like a global warming key. I can bet you that I could make that would you know I could just I could just put it up in the sky keyhole would open up you know, and I could just get all the carbon out that.
Jessup: Now I feel bad my mind was so…
Stanchfield: Were you thinking selfishly?
Jessup: …much more selfish. Oh my god. I was like, I was like, if there could be like, procrastination key that like, like, eliminated the urge to procrastinate, just temporarily. I mean, for me, I think, let it go forever. But I mean, it’s just like, you know, you turn it on.
Stanchfield: Do it like you need.
Jessup: Yeah, maybe like it’s called Red Bull, I guess. 
Q: I wanted to know if you could switch your character with anybody else in the show for season two, which character, which person would you switch with?
Jessup: I would have, I’ve never ever played a villain before. And I think the villains in this season get to have a lot of fun. I think both Gabe and Eden are like really fun characters. I, I think I would probably say Gabe or slash Dodge, because I didn’t get to work a whole bunch with, with Eden. But every time I did a scene with, with Griffin who plays, Gabe I was always like, oh, you got to be like all nefarious. You know, like, you get to like, you get to like, like smirk behind our backs. And so I’m like, that would be fun.
Stanchfield:I have to say my answers very similar. The two characters Eden and Gabe are really, they’re delicious villains this season. They have a lot of fun. And I would also say Gabe I mean Dodge is just the shiftiest character and that, that would be my choice. That would be a fun. Fun departure from Nina Locke.
Q: I’m not really aware of how much you know, when the season begins. Do you get the full series? Or so do you get only your part? So things are like a mystery while you’re filming?
Jessup: I’ve been on shows where they only give you your pages, or that they redact certain things, but this was not like that. I mean, we had it pretty good because of the season two was delayed, in terms of production was delayed because of COVID. So the writing was pretty much done. I mean, a lot of it was very far along. But before we even started to film, so we were able to have a lot of the scripts, I think it was like four or five of the scripts before we even started shooting. And Carlton and Meredith, our showrunners, they’re not going around telling everyone everything that happens, but they’re pretty open. And, and if you have questions about where things are headed, they’re, they’re happy to answer. So it wasn’t a total mystery to me going through it. But usually, it’s like the way things happen, is kind of surprising, more than the things themselves.
Stanchfield: Yeah, I would add on to that, that it felt a little bit more like working on a film than an episodic TV show. Because you really did get a sense of your arc. You know, especially with these main characters, our showrunners were really good about letting us know sort of what to, you know, what to shoot for where was all headed so we could pace ourselves or, you know, sort of know how much to take things throughout the season. Season Three, which we’ve also already shot was a little, they were still writing it as we were going so we got them a little bit later. But again, they were very communicative with, with what was in store for us. So it was really nice to have that going in.
Q: If somebody used a head key on you, what would your inside of your head with all your memories and everything…what would that look like?
Stanchfield:This year? This year my answer is different than last season. My head would be really giant overgrown garden with all sorts of fruits and vegetables and fruit trees and herbs and it would not be just any one climate, it would just sort of be all sorts of things and my memories would be like in tomatoes and, and that sort of thing.
Jessup: Sounds pleasant, actually. I always think it’s like, I mean I hope it doesn’t sound too depressing. I mean, I, I always think of like a rundown movie theater, you know, like, like, it doesn’t work anymore. Like the projector is still there, but it’s broken. And there’s all these like reels that are full of film but they’re dusty and scratched. And the seats if you try and sit on them you fall through the big cloud of dust. That’s what, that’s kind of what I think because I, I find that there’s something quite, um, I like abandoned movie theaters. So that’s what I identify with.
Q: Even though season three has been filmed. Connor, where would you like to see Tyler’s character go? Like through in the series?
Jessup: Yeah, I mean, Tyler, you know, in season two, I got there’s a lot more variation in Tyler in season one, he really is just mostly dealing with the repercussions of his dad’s death and the guilt and the, and the grief that he carries about that. And Season Two having worked through some of that he like the menu has, has broadened for what for how Tyler can react to things and how even feel and that was really fun. And I actually think that the side of Tyler that I like the best and that I it would be nice to see more of his the side of how it is sort of goofy, you know, that actually can have fun. That isn’t so serious and straightforward and, and, and is a little a little more like a kid I guess. You know, when we met Tyler, when I met Tyler he already felt like because of his traumas he was being forced to grow up so quick. So even as he as he matures and matures and he becomes more of an adult it’d be fun to see a little more of a kid Tyler.
Q: How about you Darby What? What would you like to see Nina at?
Stanchfield: I would say the biggest thing is a connection, a true connection to her kids. I think that’s something that is so… Nina Locke is so disconnected from her kids for most of the first two seasons and it’s important to her and I know something that’s sustainable. I think that, that would be something I would wish for her because it’s so important to Nina.
Q: Are there any fun stories from the set of you guys playing pranks on each other, anything like that, that you guys would love to share? I’d love to hear more.
Stanchfield: I will share that we all came up with nicknames for each other sort of organically. I’m not going to say what the nicknames are. We all have like pretty edgy nicknames. And it was really a family affair. Wouldn’t you say Connor? Like I think…
Jessup: For sure.
Stanchfield: Yeah, so we become so familiar we have, we have shorthand, we have nicknames. That only we know.
Jessup: And no one else ever will.
Stanchfield: And no one ever will.
Q: How much of the information or if you took time in studying your character, did any of you refer to the graphic novels at all?
Jessup: I mean, I read, I read all the graphic novels before we started shooting season one and obviously that was a foundation not just for the character but for the whole show and comfort really to know that, that you know the bones were solid. But I think once we got going on the show I think we all realized early speaking for myself, realized that in a way that this was like you know, the same starting point but we were going in like an alternate direction like we were paving our own our own road through these stories and these themes and this characters. So and Joe Hill was really encouraging that we think of it as its own thing, you know, that we think of it as a remix and that we not be that we not feel trapped in what already existed so I just speaking for myself I didn’t feel especially in seasons two and three a huge urge to bring the character back to the Tyler in the comics because he’s quite different you know. But I do think that even though our show goes in a lot of different directions that it finds really creative and really meaningful ways I think to weave back into the comics every once in a while and in ways that I hope will be surprising to fans of the comics so it’s still very much in the same has the same DNA.
Stanchfield: That, yeah, I would agree that Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez the creators, Illustrator and writer of the comic book series, they’re incredibly supportive of this Netflix show and of our cast and they before COVID they were able to come visit our set in the first season they were there a couple times. And we were just so encouraging and we felt very supported. I specifically was told by our showrunners, the creators of our TV show, Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill, to not base Nina Locke on the comics. I mean that really they were looking for something a little bit different in this matriarch for this world. The comic books are very horror based and our genre for the Netflix series is a little bit lighter, it’s a little you know more mystery fantasy genres and with a little horror but they wanted Nina Locke to be different and so they just said what you know you what you brought in your meeting,what we saw your work that that’s really we want you to just start there and so I also enjoyed becoming familiar with the comics just for the world you know, understand this world and the rules of the magic and, and, and the core of the family. And Nina Locke in the comics is fantastic. I mean, she’s constantly drunk. She’s, you know, she’s got a leg brace on and she’s, you know, I mean when, when her husband is killed, it’s quite dark and she’s been attacked physically as well. So it’s, it’s tears streaming down her face the entire it’s quite, it’s quite fabulous. But I really did find my own way and establish my own Nina Locke. And a lot of it had to do with just the chemistry with this cast as well. You know, the, Connor, Emilia and Jackson and finding a rhythm with them.
Are you ready to see what the Locke Family unlock in Season 2?
Christiane Elin
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