Cancelled Before It Began: Locke and Key (2011)

Our ongoing look back at sci fi / fantasy TV shows that were cancelled way too soon or pilots that never made it to series.

Locke and Key is now a Netflix original series that debuted earlier this month and has been well received by fans and critics so far. But the attempts to do a live-action adaptation of the beloved Joe Hill supernatural comic began over a decade ago and have resulted in two failed pilots, one of which was lauded by attendees of the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. If that pilot had taken off, we might have had a very different version of the property.

Dimension films was the first production company to acquire the rights to the comic, with plans to adapt it to the big screen. But in early 2010, the property moved over to Deamworks with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci attached, and the decision was made to adapt it as a TV series. Josh Friedman was also brought onboard as writer and showrunner. 20th Century Fox Television joined the production and the FOX network gave a greenlight to a pilot that starred Miranda Otto, Sarah Bolger, Skylar Gaertner, and Nick Stahl as the Locke family. FOX ended up passing on the series, though, picking up J.J. Abrams’ time-travel drama Alcatraz instead (which was cancelled after thirteen episodes). The pilot was screened at the San Diego Comic-Con in the Summer of 2011 where it was well-received by fans, and the studio attempted to shop it around to other venues, but with no success.

The project then remained dormant for a few years until 2016 when IDW Entertainment started work on a television adaptation once again. Joe Hill was writing the episodes and the series was pitched to multipe linear networks as well as the streaming services. Hulu showed interest in 2017 and gave a green light to the pilot with Carlton Cuse onboard to develop it for television. That one went through some behind-the-scenes changes and the streaming service ultimately passed on the pilot, putting the fate of the television adaptation in doubt once again.

In 2018, Netflix swooped in and decided to breathe life back into the project. They chose to redevelop it and not work from the Hulu pilot, but Joe Hill and Carlton Cuse remained onboard the production. The streaming service gave it a direct-to-series order and with its premiere on February 7, 2020, Locke and Key finally made it to television.

I was not at SDCC in 2011, so I did not get a chance to view the FOX pilot. But based on the trailer that you can find on YouTube, it had a very different look and feel than the Netflix production. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. And maybe it is for the best that the property landed at Netflix considering FOX’s reputation for cancelling genre shows (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Almost Human, ect.). The Netflix series has a much more cinematic feel and word is that the streamer is already considering renewing the show through its third season. So fans of the comic finally have their live-action adaptation, though it certainly would have been interesting to how the FOX production would have spun the story.

Aired: Never Aired

Starring: Miranda Otto, Sarah Bolger, Skylar Gaertner, Nick Stahl, Mark Pellegrino

Created by: Joe Hill