There’s No ‘Locke And Key’ Season 4 Coming To Netflix, And That’s A Good Thing

Over the weekend, I finished the remaining eight episodes of Locke and Key season 3, and had the same thought as a lot of other people. “Wait, is the show just…over now? Was that the series finale?”

The answer is…yes, yes it was. There is no Locke and Key season 4, as when it was picked up for the third season, it was declared ahead of time that it would be its last. It’s an extremely unusual consideration for a Netflix series, which are either such huge hits they go on for 5-7 years, or they do well, then taper off, then get cancelled ending on some season finale cliffhanger, never able to wrap up their plot threads.

Locke and Key is the rare show that may not be one of Netflix’s ultra-mega hits, but it gets to have an ending all the same thanks to some actual planning that went into production between the showrunners and Netflix itself. It prevents the show from being tossed into the Netflix graveyard of shows that run for 1-3 seasons and end unfinished, as now, Locke and Key represents a complete series in Netflix’s catalogue. And honestly, it does not have all that many of those.

So no, there is no Locke and Key season 4, which you may have guessed by the way things ended. Spoilers follow.

I will agree with what appears to be the critical and audience consensus, that season 3 was the weakest of the three seasons of the show. This was namely due to the removal of Dodge as the main villain, and even if she did show up as a cameo for a few episodes in Bode’s body (that was the best part of the season), the Revolutionary War villains were just not on the same level. Also, everyone kept making some pretty dumb decisions over the course of the episodes (grab all the keys that spilled on the floor! What are you doing!).

However, I did appreciate the ending, which had the Locke family toss away all their magic keys back into the portal to the demon dimension in order to close it, giving up their power, but inviting less death and danger into their lives in the future. The episode ends with some key whispering, and there are more stories from the books that could be adapted if they wanted to return to the show someday, but I think as a series finale, this was a pretty good one, and it’s time to let the Lockes rests, even if some fans may want to see a season 4.

As for where the cast goes from here, we may see them pop up on other Netflix productions, but I have my eye on one of them in particular, Kinsey actress Emilia Jones. Why her? Well, in case you missed it, she starred in the literal Oscar Best Picture winner of 2022, CODA, where she played a singer with a deaf family. While she herself was not nominated for an acting Oscar, it was a massively high profile role that she killed, and I would expect to see some pretty great things from her in the future. She will star in a pair of upcoming movies, Fairyland and Cat Person, but no telling when she may return to TV.

In any case, I think this was the right call for Locke and Key, which got to have an actual ending. We’ll see if other shows follow suit in the coming years, or if Netflix will keep leaving a trail of unfinished stories in its lineup.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.