Locke & Key Season 2 is available to stream on Friday, October 22nd, 2021.

YEC was able to speak with the Locke & Key series creators and showrunners, Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill, about all things key related. Season two is amped up after providing a lot of foundational groundwork in season one. The darker, horror pops help to move the origin story of the Locke Family and reveal exactly how the magic keys came to be made. The showrunners reveal more about the elements of season two in our interview.

Q: Can you kind of talk about how you make the decision of what to pull from a comic versus what to add of your own stuff, and how you kind of, I guess decided to spread it across two seasons into three, like how you kind of just balanced that?

CUSE: I mean, it’s not a super didactic process, it’s a much more intuitive one, Meredith and I obviously have read the comics multiple times and have digested this rich and wonderful world that Joe and Gabriel have created. And then we are telling our story. And we know that there are certain things that we both loved about the comic books, and we want to see those things at various points. But how and when that happens, it’s kind of more organic, how that unfolds, we’re just telling our story, and then be like, Oh, this would be a great place to introduce that key or, or this key, or maybe we’ll make up a new key here. You know, this particular character turn would be, you know, really fun in the context of this other thing that we’re doing that we’ve invented. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not, it’s something that’s kind of organically evolved as we just make the episodes and as we think about what we’re going to do next and just to reiterate, as Meredith said, the collaboration with Joe and Gabriel has been great, and they’ve been incredibly generous in allowing us to make the show its own thing and have collaborated and participated with us in this new iteration of that story.

Q: One of the focuses of season two was designing keys and making your own key. So if you could design a key, what intention would you use it with?

AVERILL: Good question, because the answer. It’s funny, because it’s a question that we asked our writers. And in fact, we had a whiteboard in our writer’s room, that was just a list of, kind of wish fulfillment. What keys would you want to make? And some of them end up in the show? So that’s why, that’s why I don’t want to spoil too much. But, um, gosh, hmm. I don’t know. I mean, it’s such an open…

CUSE: I mean, I think that in a way, the the answer that question has ended up embedded in the show because as Meredith said, we did have those conversations that I think all the stuff that we thought was delightful, we sort of added into keys that we created, or we, you know, or Joe and Gabriel did the hard work before us of I mean, anywhere key, for instance, is a fantastic idea, which delights everybody particularly in this current age of nightmarish air travel. So, I feel like the keys that, that we came up with and created and are part of the show or the answer to the question, you know, we kind of, we tried anything that we thought would be really cool. That would really kind of latch on to that wish fulfillment quality, the keys we tried to put it into a key and put it into the show,

AVERILL: I thought of one key that is not in the show that I would love is a key that removes calories from French fries. Not in the show. That, that’s a key I would like. I can’t really see a storyline for that key in our show, but I can see a storyline for it in my own personal life. So that would be a key I would like French fry key.

Q: Currently, at comic book stores, there is a series called Locke & Key Sandman. And, uh, with, you know, Sandman, now appearing on Netflix, is there a potential chance that we could see a Locke & Key Sandman crossover on the Netflix platform someday?

CUSE: That is a very good question. And I think it’s a question you’d have to ask Netflix. You know Meredith and I love the world of Locke & Key. And I think we can really be, it’s gonna be Netflix’s call, how long we get to explore that world? And, um, how, you know, in what ways that Locke & Key can expand. But I think the comics have gotten a lot of good, gotten good reviews, and they’re really interesting. And sure that would be I think there’s a really cool adaptation to be had there.

Q: So I was wondering how you guys decide because the comic book series includes lots more horror, so how do you decide creatively how to, I mean, you’re doing, doing your own kind of style. So how do you decide you know what, horror elements or what, what particularly is like enough horror, on that line, we kind of get that, that feeling. But then it’s not. It’s good for you know, like, maybe older, this shows good for older teens, and you’re not, you know, getting your audience too disturbed even though a lot of this stuff is quite disturbing.

AVERILL: When we first started talking about the adaptation, we both really liked the idea of leaning more into the fantasy elements of the comic, and slightly less away from the horror elements. And, you know, I think that what you know, what came out of that is that you can still have these horror elements, but it’s you sort of not lingering in them. They don’t feel gratuitous. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to look at The Splattering trailer that we premiered online yesterday, but we included, there’s a clip at the end of it that is in, I mean, episode one. And it depicts Eden attacking a poor popcorn guy. I don’t know how poor he is. He was you know, this guy, he kind of had it coming but you know that’s an example of you know, an element of horror that we include that we think is still in the vein of the show. But you know as a nice bit of bit pop of gore and you, you never want to go too far to lean too far into it or linger too far where you’re you know, you’re alienating a portion of the audience we love it this is a show that parents can watch with their kids I mean kids of a certain age of course. But you know, it always comes back to story and if the story calls for a pop of horror, a pop of gore, we go for it. We never want to just, you know, have a bit of horror just or gore just for the sake of it. Because it’s for us you know, it’s always about character and story. And so it’s a tricky balance, but I think it’s a balance that we’ve been able to find and season two is darker than season one. Season two does have a lot more of those horror elements. But we think, it still has a good healthy balance of the fantasy and the family drama and the YA stories and the romance and all of the things that we love and set up in season one still continuing to season two I think it’s just everything just a bit darker.

Q: If someone were to use the head key on both of you, what would the inside of your mind look like the way the memories were stored and everything? What, what would we find?

CUSE: Oh, gosh, I don’t know I mean, I feel like if you’re a writer you’re you know your brain is, uh. My favorite quote is David Milch used to say, “My brain is a dangerous playground.” And I, I don’t know. I, I wouldn’t really want to use the head key myself. I’m not, I’m not really kind of at that particular point of like self, self reflection right now. I think it would be…I’m good staying locked out. 

AVERILL: I think, I think mine would look like an anthropology that’s been designed by Tim Burton. That’s what I see. Yeah. 

Q: When you plan out, do you plan out these seasons? Like do you have a plan now that like hey, just in case Netflix gives us seasons four and five? Do you already have a game plan for that? Or do you kind of like right thinking like okay, season three that will be it and then we do have kind of a template but we’re really not going to work on it for a season four and how many years in advance do you hope like do you have planned if Netflix gives you like as many limited, as many seasons as you wanted?

AVERILL: You know I think you learn so much by watching sort of the prior season I think you know, after we finish Season One, we were able to learn a lot by you know, looking back and watching those episodes and they helped inform story moving forward so I think while it can be beneficial to work that far ahead, I also think there’s there’s something to be said about you know, taking a beat and learning and watching you know, the ,the season that you’ve just completed before getting too far down the line on a particular story. So you know, we’ve literally just finished filming season three a month ago. Um, so you know, and we’re you know, in post on that right now so we’re our heads are very much in season three at the moment. But you know, these are characters in a world that we all, we both love so much. And there’s, you know, much story, I think to be mined for them. So we would love the opportunity to be able to continue telling these stories. But you know, as I said, right now we’re just so heavily focused on season three.

Q: Sure, um, I love the idea that we’re starting to explore in this season, a lot of the origins of keys and key making going back and forth between timelines and everything. When you start, you know, looking at period elements of this season, were those a little bit more difficult to put together then, you know, elements that you pretty much just had that were contemporary?

CUSE : we wanted to, you know, explore the history of the mythology, the, you know, I think people are really interested in where do the keys come from, who used them before, who had them before. And so we wanted that to be part of our storytelling which obviously necessitated going back to the past. And, you know, kudos to our production team for being able to realize that on a costume level, set level, like trying to figure out how do we, you know, take our contemporary version of Key House which, you know, it’s not was made in the late 1800s or and probably revised into the 1900s, how do we make that work for something that fits in Colonial Times mean there was a lot of, there’s a lot of work that went into it to make their you know, kind of make their feel like there was continuity between the past and the present, but also make sure that the period stuff, you know, felt authentic, it was fun to do and it was hard work, but I think the audience will feel very satisfied learning a lot of the stuff that they learn.

AVERILL: Yeah, it was also shot in the dead of winter. So it was I think, think challenging night shoots there, but it made for some really beautiful shots.

Q: So this season, it seemed like there were definitely more production value, special effects and action. Can you tell us a little bit more about you know, being able to explore the action and special effects elements to the season?

AVERILL: Yeah, I mean, the challenge is always that you want to outdo yourself, and so on every level story, visual effects everything and so we just wanted to turn up the dial, and everything is so much more heightened this season. As I said, we leaned more into, kind of, sort of the horror and a little bit more of the darker aspects of the show. And with that, you know, came these incredible, you know, visual effects like the spiders, you know, one of them and one of the more exciting ones that sequence for us. And so yeah, I mean, I think everything is just so much more heightened. And again, with that comes, comes our visual effects. And I think also, you know, our, our music is awesome this season. And you know, we’ve really just found ways to kind of turn the dial up.

Q: Has there been anything from the comics that you’ve wanted to put in…adapt, that you haven’t been able to either for horror elements, or maybe just you can’t do it on television or something like that?

CUSE: I don’t feel like we, I don’t think we feel like we missed anything. I think that certainly a season two and season three, you know, the stuff that we really liked and respond to in the comics that fit into the way our story was unfolding. We stuck it in there. I, there’s nothing that.. the comics have their own thing, and they’re fantastic. But, you know, I think that we really utilize them for our storytelling.. Do you feel like we’re missing anything, Meredith?

AVERILL: No, I mean, there were some keys that we like actively felt worked better in the comic than and wouldn’t have maybe translated as well, to the screen that we, you know, deliberately felt like, that’s a key that we probably are not going to introduce because the way that it translates better in the comic than on screen. And then there were elements like with the head key that we obviously adapted in the comic, when you put the head, when you put the key in someone’s neck, they’re literally the top of their head, like a lid comes off, which in the comic where it makes for like this incredible splash panel, but to translate that for TV, you know, would be a bit grotesque. You could do it, but we, you know, chose to kind of find our own way to do that. But in terms of the stories of the comics, you know, I feel like we’ve mined, we’re mining and continue to mine and season three the stories that we really love and responded to.Q: Are there any Easter eggs that you can share with us for season two? And also, did Joe and Gabriel get a chance to make a cameo in season two like they did in season one?

Q: Are there any Easter eggs that you can share with us for season two? And also, did Joe and Gabriel get a chance to make a cameo in season two like they did in season one?

CUSE: It wasn’t possible for them to do a cameo in season two because of COVID, really.  I mean, it’s just, was just complicated everything and so the idea of just sort of, there was no there was kind of a certain frivolity to having a cameo that just doesn’t align with all the COVID protocols. I mean, it wasn’t really a necessary thing and I think just for you know, Gabriel’s like across the world and Chile and it just it didn’t work out I mean we we’ve spent a lot of time collaborating with them and Gabriel was involved in designing keys for us and Joe read and did notes on the scripts and threw in his two cents on everything so they’re involved but we didn’t get to that we didn’t we didn’t have a chance to get them on screen.

AVERILL: Yeah, and in terms of Easter eggs, there are several Easter eggs in Keyhouse that you will see play out in season three that are, that have been planted. But I can’t tell you what they are, they wouldn’t be Easter eggs.

It seems like just when you are excited and ready for season two of Locke & Key, the showrunners have set us up for another amazing Locke Family journey for season three.