Lockwood & Co. Trailer: Attack The Block Director Joe Cornish Is Trading Aliens For Ghosts In New Netflix Series

In "Attack The Block," Joe Cornish pit a teenage street gang against alien invaders. In "The Kid Who Would Be King," a middle school boy faced off against the powerful sorceress Morgana. So continuing the trend of British youngsters being just a little out of their depths in the fight against a powerful, mythical force, the writer-director is back with an adaptation of Jonathan Stroud's supernatural YA series, "Lockwood & Co." Which means, you guessed it, a team of teenagers are banding together to take down ghosts.

This ghost-busting adventure is set in a world where spirits are no big surprise — instead they're a constant, much too common terror. London, like the rest of their world, is overrun with ghosts and it comes down to major corporations to employ the agents capable of keeping them at bay. But those corporate shills aren't the only ones keeping people safe — there are also small agencies, run independently, for the good of the people. Lockwood & Co is one of them.

Rebellious young entrepreneur Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman) is the man, er, teen in charge. He's joined by his brilliant partner in action George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) and newcomer Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes), the psychically gifted teen who completes their squad. Together, this renegade trio make up a very familiar YA dynamic: it's them against the world! Except, instead of facing off against bullies, teachers or the daily drama of high school, they are fighting very powerful ghosts capable of killing them with a single touch. Meaning it's up to them to swerve past death while exploring some of the most haunted locales in London. Sounds easy enough, right? The latest trailer for the upcoming series is available to watch below, showing just how complicated their ghost-hunting day job can become.

Call me crazy, but something about marrying capitalism to ghost-busting seems like a terrible idea. Maybe I'm just inclined to root for the underdogs — Lockwood & Co are viciously mocked by the bigger agencies, who dismiss them as "amateurs" — but any industry that leans too hard on major corporations seems like a breeding ground for corruption. Anthony Lockwood certainly seems to think so, which is why he has a plan to grow his three-person-agency with high profile cases.

To take its place in the hall of fame alongside all the other beloved ghost hunting sagas, "Lockwood Co" has to deliver on four fronts: frights, fights, friendship, and a good sense of humor. If you're familiar with Cornish's work (or Stroud's novel), then it feels safe to assume that all the ingredients are there. Let's just hope they sing in harmony across the eight-episode first season.

"Lockwood & Co." is slated to hit Netflix soon, on January 27, 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.