Joe Hill promises rich future for Locke & Key at NYCC: 'We're just getting started'

Locke & Key made a splashy debut onto Netflix early this year and now the second season of the comic adaptation is already in production. But as the comic continues, the intense and magical world (that brings plenty of fear along for the ride) is only getting larger. Thankfully those behind the franchise opened up about its future at New York Comic Con 2020.

While the official run ended in 2013, the second issue of the Chamberlin Locke-focused miniseries Locke & Key: In Pale Battalions Go dropped this week. World War I and Locke's rebellious son are the subject of this historical fiction...that just happens to have some magical keys. Author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodríguez sat down with their series editor Chris Ryall to talk all things Locke & Key - comics, TV, and otherwise.

Take a look:

"Sometimes I think, with Locke & Key, the first six books were just the prologue," Hill said. "We're just getting started."

In fact, the three-part In Pale Battalions Go will be getting an "immediate sequel" in the next step the pair are developing, according to Rodríguez. Hill says the Chamberlin Locke standalones are planned on being collected into a book called Locke & Key: The Golden Age.

And those comics are now actually being influenced by the series. The Matchstick Key, which was a new creation for the Netflix show, appears in In Pale Battalions Go #2 — and fans "may later discover why the Matchstick Key has never been seen in the modern day," according to Hill. "The two storylines — the comic book storyline and the TV storyline — are meshed together, but are different," Hill said. ​​​​

The second season of co-showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill's TV series has already dropped some hints about its future just through casting: Aaron Ashmore (Duncan Locke) and Hallea Jones (Eden Hawkins) got promoted to series regulars while Brendan Hines joined the cast as history teacher Josh Bennett and Liyou Abere came aboard as Bode's new friend Amie Bennett.

The other comic on the way, the Sandman crossover Locke & Key: Hell & Gone – A Sandman Universe, was inspired by Rodríguez's desire to tell a story in the franchise that was a version of Dante's Inferno. Basically, bring a Locke to Hell. In fact, Skelton Key Studios will actually be making a physical Key to Hell now that DC has given permission — and it's gonna be giant.

Locke & Key: In Pale Battalions Go #2 is out in stores now. Season 1 of the TV series is streaming now on Netflix.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of New York Comic Con Metaverse 2020.