Lockwood & Co. Teaser: Ghostbusting Gets A Deadly YA Twist In A New Series From Joe Cornish

With "Attack The Block," writer-director Joe Cornish brought an alien invasion down to the streets of South London. Nearly a decade later, he helmed "The Kid Who Would Be King," a fantastical coming-of-age tale where the weight of Arthurian legend rests on the shoulders of a middle-school boy. After taking sci-fi and fantasy in surprising new directions, Cornish is back, with his sights set on the world of the paranormal. The latest addition to Netflix's growing YA library is "Lockwood & Co.," an adaptation of the supernatural novels from Jonathan Stroud.

Like the novels, the eight-episode series follows the story of a powerful young psychic named Lucy, who joins a teen ghost-hunting agency in a world already overrun by paranormal activity. So other than a crew of teenage ghost detectives, what sets this ghost story apart from others?

In a recent chat with Empire, Cornish mused that while ghosts tend to be frightening, they aren't exactly a tangible (no pun intended) threat: "[A ghost] can make you jump or it can scare, but in terms of actual physical threat, movies sometimes struggle." This is where "Lockwood And Co" diverges. In this story, a single touch from a ghost is deadly. This gave Cornish something very exciting to work with:

"Suddenly, you're in a new kind of ghost story, where you can arm yourself against a ghost and use skill and intelligence and tactics to outsmart it."

Armed with ghost-fighting tools and a metric ton of courage, Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), Anthony Lockwood, (Cameron Chapman) and George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) will take to the streets to investigate the many ghosts haunting London. If you're already aching to see the kids in action, Netflix has recently released the first clip from the upcoming series, which you can check out below.

Obviously, Lockwood & Co have their work cut out for them! Fighting ghosts is no easy task, especially when one-third of your crew is dangling over a ledge and the other is fending off a ghost with ... a sword? Bad situation aside, Lucy and Anthony manage to survive, but the clip still leaves us with a question: how does one actually defeat a ghost in this world? Especially when a touch is all it takes to join them in the afterlife.

Besides the extra deadly ghosts, the other thing that sets "Lockwood & Co" apart is its frozen-in-time setting. "The digital revolution never happened," Cornish explained to Empire. "There are no mobile phones. There are still newspapers and magazines. Everything's stuck around the mid-'80s, and everything's still physical." This is a big hint at just how bad the world's paranormal problem has become — plus, the retro-'80s vibes also give the show plenty of room to pay homage to '80s horror!

Even though it's the perfect time of year for a YA ghost-busting saga, we're still months away from the series release. "Lockwood & Co." is slated to hit Netflix on January 23, 2023. Here's the official synopsis:

In a world plagued by ghosts, where giant corporations employ psychic teens to battle the supernatural, only one company operates without adult supervision, and its name is Lockwood & Co. Run by Anthony Lockwood, a rebellious young entrepreneur haunted by his mysterious past, his brilliant but eccentric sidekick George and a newly arrived, supremely gifted girl called Lucy, this renegade trio are about to unravel a terrifying mystery that will change the course of history.