EXCLUSIVE: Nick Stahl has joined the cast of Fox’s drama pilot Locke & Key, which was originally targeted for summer but is now for fall consideration. The project, from producers Kurtzman/Orci, 20th TV and DreamWorks TV, is based on Joe Hill’s comic. It tells the story of Nina Locke (Miranda Otto) and her three children, Tyler, Kinsey (Sarah Bolger), and Bode who, after the brutal murder of Nina’s husband Rendell Locke, return to Keyhouse, his old family home in Massachusetts. There, they are pestered by an evil entity named DODGE that’s determined to hold the family hostage one way or another until it gets what it wants. Stahl will play Rendell’s younger brother Duncan Locke, an art teacher, who lives nearby and frequently visits Nina and the kids and who strangely has few memories of his time growing up in Keyhouse. Stahl, repped by ICM and KLWG, next co-stars opposite Zoe Saldana in the indie Burning Palms, which premieres tonight.

Here is what Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said about the change of plans for Locke & Key at yesterday’s Fox TCA executive session: “Originally, we had it on a summer track… They just simply couldn’t make the dates. We were going to rush it creatively. So we’ve got it in the hopper now for May, and we’ll just figure out where it should be programmed best.”