‘Locke And Key’ Finds Its Bode Locke With ‘It’ Star

Fans of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s fantasy horror comic series Locke & Key grew nervous last month following the announcement that Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson had to abandon the pilot. Luckily, the casting of Jackson Robert Scott as the youngest member of the Locke family has reminded fans that the project is moving forward under new leadership from director Andy Muschietti, per The Hollywood Reporter.

The comic series “revolves around three siblings who, after the gruesome murder of their father, move to their ancestral home in Maine only to find the house has magical keys that give them an array of powers. Little do they know, a devious demon also wants the keys, and will stop at nothing to attain them.”

In the story, Bode Locke is “filled with all the optimism and imagination of an exuberant eight-year-old, Bode is especially attuned to the supernatural possibilities of Keyhouse…and especially vulnerable to the unnatural forces circling his family.”

The project will mark a reunion for Scott and Muschietti, as the young actor plays Georgie in Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It that hits theaters later this year. The role in that film might not include much screen time, but his character’s disappearance after an encounter with Pennywise the clown is a pivotal event that motivates most of the rest of the story.

The announcement of Scott’s casting comes after the confirmation that Frances O’Connor (A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Conjuring 2) will play the mother of the children.

Following that announcement, IDW Entertainment president David Ozer, who will executive produce the series, revealed, “We are thrilled to have the multi-dimensional talents of Frances O’Connor to breathe color and life into this pivotal character in our series, and along with a stellar production team in place, we have no doubt that we will be able to bring Joe Hill’s creative vision to the small screen.”

Hill and Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel, Lost) will be collaborating to develop the script for the hour-long pilot of the series.

This will be the second attempt at bringing the series to life, with a pilot previously being created in 2011 that was never picked up.