(Editor’s note: This piece was originally published February 8, 2018)
Costars and pals, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi are spinning not one, but two television series off their hilarious collaboration, What We Do in the Shadows — Wellington Paranormal (“about cops”) will air in New Zealand, and What We Do in the Shadows (“about vampires in America”) hits FX, stateside. The NZ series features WWDitS‘s Karen O’Leary and Mike Minogue reprising their police roles, as well as Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, who played Nick, and Jemaine Clement kinda sorta teased that viewers might spy a familiar vampire or two.
The second show, FX’s half hour comedy, scored Clement as writer and Waititi as director, and stars quite a few familiar film faces, including Matt Berry (Lazlo),
Natasia Demetriou (Nadja)
Kayvan Novak (Nandor)
Mark Proksch (Colin Robinson) and …
… Hayden Szeto (Jonathan).
Harvey Guillen (The Magicians, iZombie, Eye Candy) is on board, too.
As of yesterday, Variety confirmed The Shape of Water and Star Trek: Discovery‘s Doug Jones,
Lady Bird and Neighbors 2 star, Beanie Feldstein,
and Feldstein’s Lady Bird costar, Jake McDorman.
That’s a heck of a cast and hey, maybe if we cross our fingers, the boys will pop in for a cameo on this show, too.
What We Do in the Shadows will air on FX, date TBA.
*Updated May 4, 2018
FX has ordered up a 10 episode season, expected to air next spring (2019).
*Updated February 4, 2019
Here’s the amusing first full trailer, with a start date of March 27, 2019 announced.
I’m happy to say the tone is just right (as expected, with Clement writing and Waititi directing), and I’ve already got a soft spot for Kayvan Novak’s Nandor (reminds of Vlad), and Harvey Guillen’s Guillermo. Let the vampire games begin!