WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
The Staten Island Fang Gang are back running their local Vampiric Council in What We Do In The Shadows season three
The stakes are served off the bone in season three.
WITH THE WORLD STUCK AT home and miserable in 2020, one highlight for the masses was season two of What We Do In The Shadows. Created by Jemaine Clement as a spin-off series to his 2014 mockumentary film made with Taika Waititi, the series truly earned its breakout hit status, following a household of dysfunctional vamps residing in Staten Island, New York.
Season two finale “Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires” left audiences with a huge cliffhanger as long-suffering familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) was forced to reveal his Van Helsing lineage, while saving Nadia (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) from a trap set by the local Vampiric Council. With Guillermo staking the lot of them, his vampire “family” now know about his deadly skills.
Executive producer and showrunner Paul Simms tells Red Alert that season three picks up a month after the events of the finale.
“Where we ended last season was we painted ourselves into a corner, as we always do, with some very high stakes about the vampires’ discovery that Guillermo could kill them at any moment, and that he has been living as a vampire killer among them the whole time,” Simms explains. “The title of the first episode is ‘The Prisoner’, and that teases, sort of, what’s going on.”
POWER PACK
Regardless of their familiar, the four vamps will get to fill the power vacuum left by Guillermo’s Council culling, as they assume the throne in the tri-state area. “It seemed funny to us that this group of vampires, who can’t even really get along with each other, are given a position of power where they’re making judgements on other vampires and still struggling with each other,” Simms says of their new set-up for this season.
“It’s also a fun storyline because it gave us more insight into each one of the characters,” Simms continues. “With Nandor, though he’s a relentless warrior, when it comes to ruling he’s a little more merciful. Nadja is a little more bloodthirsty and wants to rule with an iron fist. Laszlo says he did not become a vampire to be a paper pusher and doesn’t give a shit about official vampire organisations.
“Colin Robinson is very happy to be the secretary and take the minutes, which is the most boring job in any organisation,” he laughs about the Energy Vampir. “And Guillermo is behind them all whispering and trying to play a game of chess about who controls what and how he can get a little more respect and power for himself.”
As with prior seasons, the radius of the series will remain local as they settle into the Vampire Council office, located in the basement of an office building. “You never know who is going to show up. We have a few surprises this season,” Simms teases about returning characters, or new guest actors joining the series. He does confirm that comedian Kristen Schaal, who first appeared as the Vampiric
Council guide in season one, will be back to help the vampires transition into their new roles. The creepy, possessed Nadja doll will also return, again voiced by Demetriou, as her mini-me companion. “There is an episode coming up in the second half of the season that is the doll’s story, where she and Nadja have
We ended last season painting ourselves into a corner, as we always do
something of a falling out,” Simms says. “It’s a battle between a woman and an identical version of her own mind, and it’s a really good one.”
For fans of Matt Berry’s barkeep alter ego Jackie Daytona, Simms says don’t look for a return adventure yet for the bon vivant. He says the writers’ room didn’t think they had a story strong enough to top last season’s episode, so he’ll have to wait in the shadows.
“We talked about it and we felt like it would be pandering to try to bring him back,” Simms admits. “But the opposite of that is true with the season two episode where Laszlo and Nadja have their music act. We enjoyed that so much that in season three there’s a lot more of Laszlo and his music in all different ways, that’s really fun.”
Bringing it back to Guillermo, and if it will be revealed that Van Helsing was actually Latino, Simms says that’s an interesting speculation that will be answered “in a big way” in season four. “You’re going to meet all of Guillermo’s family in a way that makes him very anxious. And we’re going to learn that if he has Van Helsing DNA, so does the rest of his family, even though they might not realise it.” TB
What We Do In The Shadows is on FX in the US now. A UK release date is TBC.