Anna Daniels
Posted on Friday, January 10th, 2020 by Fred Topel
Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s vampire comedy What We Do In the Shadows became a hit FX series last year. It’s back for a second season and FX presented a panel for the Television Critics Association to preview it. Cast members Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillen and Mark Proksch were on the panel with Clement and executive producer/writer Stefani Robinson.
They revealed what’s coming up for each of the characters, including big guest stars like Mark Hamill and season 1 characters who could no longer appear. What We Do In the Shadows returns April 15 on FX.
Mark Hamill will be on What We Do In the Shadows
What We Do in the Shadows threw down the gauntlet for celebrity guest stars in an episode where the main characters met the vampire council. Clement and Waititi reprised their roles from the movie, and Tilda Swinton, Evan Rachel Wood and Wesley Snipes cameoed.
“We have some really good guest stars, and we have one particularly huge one,” Clement said. “I don’t know whether to say. Mark Hamill.”
That’s all Clement would say about his role, including whether he’s a vampire or a human. “No more,” Clement said. “It’s a secret.”
The vampire council is still coming after the house vampires too.
“In a pretty major way, I would say them escaping the council has consequences throughout the entirety of the season,” Proksch said.
Laszlo and Elvis
Matt Berry plays Laszlo, and Berry revealed he gets kicked out of the house in season two.
“I have to leave the house at one point,” Berry said. “I have to leave the house and I have to change my name because I’ve done something despicable. So I’m not outwardly a vampire for an episode.”
Berry meets another famous character who is also a vampire.
“Then there’s Elvis,” Berry says. “He he pops up. He was made into a vampire in the ’70s, just before he died, ’77. He’s in the basement. That was a lot of fun being with him.”
Laszlo and Nadja are in love and making music
The season finale of What We Do In the Shadows had Nadia (Demetriou) rekindle her eternal affair with her reincarnated human lover (Jake McDorman), who Laszlo always kills throughout the centuries. Seeing Laszlo step in again rekindled their marriage, and that continues in season two.
“Nadja and Laszlo are in a very good place,” Demetriou said. “They’re very, very in love and so a little more sexually active than ever.”
They’re also making music to celebrate their love.
“We have a music room which was a lot of fun where you will hear us performing songs that we’ve written over the last three, four hundred years,” Berry said. “And they’re in different sorts of styles. There’s a disco number. There’s a baroque style thing. Singer/songwriter, acoustic.”
Demetriou added, “Electronic, Ragtime. Scatting, I did some scatting. They’ve done it all. And they wrote a lot of hits, big hits.”
Although Clement comes from the musical background of Flight of the Conchords, Berry said he wrote Laszlo’s songs.
Guillermo Van Helsing continues
The season finale also revealed that Guillermo (Guillan), the human who’s been waiting a decade to become a vampire, is actually related to famed vampire hunter Van Helsing. Season two will explore his conflict.
“Guillermo finding out that he’s a natural vampire killer, yet he wants to be a vampire is a big part of the season,” Clement said. “A lot of the episodes are standalone stories as well.”
The vampires already pretty much ignored Guillermo, so having a Van Helsing in their midst doesn’t really phase them.
“A lot of it they don’t notice, but then, eventually, yes,” Clement said. “That all becomes conscious.”
It’s a juicy evolution of the role for Guillan at least.
“Guillermo gets to do a lot of action stuff,” Guillen said. “And it’s a conflict for Guillermo to want something and be good at something else. So it’s a nice crossroad.”
Several members of the What We Do in the Shadows Family have moved on
In season one, Beanie Feldstein played Jenna, a girl Nadja turned. Since Booksmart, Feldstein became unavailable for season two.
“Unfortunately, she’s just been too busy,” Clement said. “It’s a little disappointing for me because she was planned to be a big character, but we found other really fun stories and other people to bring on.”
Taika Waititi directed some season one episodes, but he is too busy to direct season two. And while Colin got a girlfriend in season 1, the emotional vampire Evie (Vanessa Bayer), but Colin will be single again.
“Evie won’t be back this season, but I find love interests in other places very comfortably,” Proksch said. “So Colin gets into some sexcapades. As America wants, America gets.”
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