Darby Stanchfield joins Netflix series based on Joe Hill’s Locke & Key

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The TV series adaptation of Joe Hill's IDW comic book series Locke & Key is continuing to rebuild its cast while moving from Hulu, which decided not to move ahead with the series after watching a pilot episode directed by IT's Andy Muschietti, over to Netflix, which has already given the series a 10 episode order but required the show to be redeveloped from scratch.

Locke & Key centers on the Locke family, 

Nina and her three children (Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode) — who move across the country to Nina’s family home, called the Keyhouse, after Nina’s husband Rendell is murdered. Once there, they discover that the house hides numerous horrifying supernatural secrets — and answers to the mystery of Rendell’s murder.

Nina was played by Frances O'Connor in Muschietti's pilot, but for the Netflix version she is being replaced by Darby Stanchfield, who is best known for playing Abby Whelan on 124 episodes of the ABC series Scandal.

Stanchfield is actually the third actress to take on the role of Nina. A pilot shot for Fox in 2011 had Miranda Otto as the character.

Here Stanchfield joins a cast that includes Connor Jessup as Tyler, Emilia Jones as Kinsey, Jackson Robert Scott as Bode (the only holdover from Muschietti's cast), Griffin Gluck as Kinsey's friend Gabe, Sherri Saum as a teacher with a mysterious history, and Steven Williams as a teacher who connects with the Locke family.

Hill has written the first episode of the Netflix series with Aron Eli Coleite, who developed Locke & Key for Netflix with Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill. Cuse and Averill are the showrunners.