‘Locke & Key’ EPs on Season 2’s Dive Into the Key’s Mythology & Revolutionary War Scenes

Are you ready for Netflix’s Locke & Key to unlock some of its biggest secrets?

For the sophomore season of the streamer’s fantasy series, based on the graphic novels of the same name written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez, expect to learn more about the mythos behind the fantastical keys hidden around the Lockes’ ancestral home, and the demon(s) hell-bent on using the keys’ magic to rule the world.

The Locke siblings — artistic Kinsey (Emilia Jones), big brother Tyler (Connor Jessup), and youngest Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) — thought they had defeated the evil shapeshifter Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira) by pushing the demon through the Black Door. The truth is, it was their adult neighbor Ellie Whedon (Sherri Saum), disguised as Dodge, who plummeted into the magical abyss. Meanwhile, Dodge has also been posing as nerdy lovestruck teenager Gabe (Griffin Gluck). Now, Dodge/Gabe and Matheson Academy’s star-in-training Eden Hawkins (Hallea Jones), who has a demon attached to her from hanging around the Black Door too long, have teamed up to cause mass chaos.

And with that chaos comes a darker than ever installment, perfectly timed as the season premieres on Friday, October 22. “By design, we felt like as our characters are maturing and they’re putting on this weight of responsibility of the keys, it felt like the show naturally wanted to mature with them,” says exec producer and co-showrunner Meredith Averill. “Everything is dialed up to 11 this season. And with that, I think the horror elements of the show are as well. It definitely is a darker season than Season 1.”

Below, Averill and fellow executive producer and showrunner Carlton Cuse tease what’s to come, including Revolutionary War-set scenes and some Locke love life dilemmas.

Where do we pick up in Season 2?

Meredith Averill: Well, we ended Season 1 on this huge cliffhanger, of course, that Gabe is Dodge and has been Dodge all along and is now Kinsey’s boyfriend, so the enemy is very much in the house. So we’re picking up right away with that. We’re picking up four months later, at the end of the summer and the school year is about to start. Tyler has been enjoying his time with Jackie [Genevieve Kang], but he’s about to make a really heartbreaking discovery about what their future holds. And Bode has been spending the summer looking for new keys.

They believe they’ve defeated Dodge at the end of last season, so what will tip them off that that’s actually not the case?

Carlton Cuse: Strange stuff starts happening. I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, but a trail of events leads them to the realization that Gabe and Eden may not be who they think they are. I think how that unfolds is really fun, and something we really set up and spent a lot of time thinking about. The audience is ahead of our characters for the first part of the season, and we do that with a lot of intention, and we’re excited to have the audience be nervous and rooting for our characters to discover this truth. Really, what happens then, is how does that play out? How do our characters now turn the tables on Dodge? That’s what drives the narrative.

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What would you say are Eden’s and Dodge’s intentions this season?

Averill: Dodge’s intention has always been that Dodge wants to rule this world. Dodge has no interest in playing second fiddle to anyone. Dodge wants control over everything, and so their mission is very much on that angle. How can they rule this world? You’ll see very early on in this season how they plan to do that.

And it seems like everybody will be making keys this season, so how does that add to the larger story at play?

Cuse: Well it’s not like we’ve turned the show into a key manufacturing operation. [Laughs] But we definitely want to explore the mythology of what it takes to make keys, how keys were made. As the season unfolds, you learn a lot more about the history of these keys, how long they’ve been around, how they came into creation, and who is responsible for bringing them into creation. And we wanted to also explore how perilous and how serious the consequences are if you make a key.

Averill: There’s a whole rich mythology in the comics where they reveal who was the original maker of the first key, why that key was made, the origins of the Black Door, and it takes you back to Revolutionary War times, so we were really excited to be able to open up our mythology and put a lot of that in too.

In the trailer, the Lockes’ mom, Nina (Darby Stanchfield), has a very sad voiceover where she’s saying she doesn’t understand what’s happening and sounds really upset. How well is she coping? We’re worried about her!

Averill: The good news is, for much of the season she has a love interest! So, don’t be too worried for Nina because she has a hot new boyfriend. We introduce a new character played by Brendan Hines named Josh who’s a new history teacher at Matheson, so we get to see Nina have a nice love interest. We also do reveal that Josh may have some ulterior motives for having to come to Matheson, so we play up a little bit of a mystery as to why he’s actually there.

But the scene that you are referring to, we set up this idea in Season 1 that adults can’t retain magic. Because of that, it’s caused this growing disconnect between her and her kids, which, you know, is kind of a metaphor just for adults not being able to connect with their teenagers. As the stakes get bigger for our kids, Nina feels this growing ocean between them. In Season 1 when that happened, it drove her to drink, and now, we have a stronger Nina who it drives back to group.

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And then Uncle Duncan (Aaron Ashmore) is also around again this season, even more than he was last season (Ashmore was promoted to series regular in September 2020). What can you say about his participation in the magical side of things this year?

Cuse: Duncan has a significant history with the keys and what that history is, and what the consequences are, is something that we explore. Duncan becomes really an important part of this season, particularly as it relates to the keys and is really an important part of how our heroes use the keys to battle Dodge and the other demonic forces on the show.

What’s something you’re each particularly excited for viewers to see this season?

Cuse: Going inside Eden’s head.

Averill: Wait till you see it. Carlton actually directed the episode where we go into Eden’s head and it is incredible. But I’m excited for the Revolutionary War aspect of it. I think it opens up the show in a way that is surprising and I think just as you said, fans are hungry to see that mythology and have some answers and give you some context for the Black Door, and the history of the key and the lineage of the Lockes. I think that just really adds so much depth to the show.