Everyone’s favorite group of off-kilter vampires are about to say goodbye inWhat We Do in the Shadowsseason 6. Co-created by Taika Waititiand Jemaine Clement, the show has served as a sequel spinoff to their acclaimed 2014 mockumentary horror-comedy about a group of vampires living together in Wellington, New Zealand. The FX show has followed a similar formula, bringing the setting to New York and centering on a new group of vampires and one of their familiars living together and still being well behind the modern times.
What We Do in the Shadowsseason 6 will be bringing the Emmy-winning comedy to a close, with Guillermo, a few months behind his transformation back from vampire into human, trying to figure out what life he wants away from being a familiar. The vampires, meanwhile, reawaken their fifth roommate they forget they left in hibernation, who tries to reinvigorate the group to conquer the New World. Instead, the group all go their separate ways on different misadventures, with Nandor and Nadja interfering with Guillermo’s attempts at an office job, while Laszlo and Colin Robinson attempt to perfect the art of reviving the dead with science.
8 Biggest Questions What We Do In The Shadows Season 6 Must Answer Before The Show Ends
What We Do In The Shadows is saying goodbye with season 6, but there’s still a lot to wrap up with Laszlo, Nandor Nadja, Colin, and Guillermo!
TheensembleWhat We Do in the Shadowsseason 6 castsees the returns of Harvey Guillén as Guillermo, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, Kayvan Novak as Nandor, Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson, Matt Berry as Laszlo and Kristen Schaal as The Guide. The final season also sees a mix of new and returning supporting faces, includingSaturday Night Live’s Mike O’Brien as their lost roommate Jerry, Doug Jones as Baron Afanas andNope’s Tim Heidecker as Guillermo’s new boss in his office.
Ahead of the show’s return,Screen Rantinterviewed showrunner Paul Simms to discussWhat We Do in the Shadowsseason 6, how he went about putting the show’s final season together, why he and the writers room elected to avoid telling sad stories, the possibility of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s returns, and what to expect from The Baron’s return.
Reflecting OnWhat We Do In the ShadowsWill Be Easier When Simms Is Done Working On It
Screen Rant: I’ve been a huge fan of theWhat We Do in the Shadowsfranchise before the show even started, and it’s amazing to think that we’re already here at the final season of the show. How does it feel for you reflecting on this journey?
Paul Simms: The reflection will feel greater once I’m actually finished editing the show, which seems to go on forever and ever. It was emotional, when we shot our last shot, and said goodbye to the set, and said goodbye to Toronto and everything. But that was months ago, that was May or something, and I’ve just been editing since then, but particularly having gotten to now that we’re deep into almost finishing the series finale episode, I feel very good.
Because looking at the whole season, we set out to make a season that was not heavy or emotional. We definitely didn’t want to do something where it was like, “Okay, you’ve laughed for five seasons, and here in season six, you’re gonna cry because the show is over.” We wanted it to be as funny as the other seasons, and have standalone episodes, and have some sense of an ending, but not beat people over the head with it. But I’m very satisfied.
Season 6 Wasn’t Too Different For Simms (Except For 1 Goal)
“…every season we feel like we use up everything we have…”
So you talk about wanting to have standalone episodes, but at the same time, the first few I’ve seen really do feel sort of serialized. As we see, Guillermo, in particular, is trying to grow up. I know you’ve done it for five seasons now, but what is it like finding that balance between standalone and serialized, especially for a final season?
Paul Simms: Every season feels the same. People always ask like, “Oh, do you have things that you saved up for the last season?” And no, every season we feel like we use up everything we have, and then, when the season ends, we have a break and have time to recharge our batteries. And then, do another season where we use it up. It was the same thing this season, we just used up everything we had. There may have been one or two things where, like, “Oh, we always wanted to do that, let’s ensure that we do it.”
A big part of that this season was, doing all those other seasons, we had a list of people that we thought were super funny guest stars. And we were like, “This is the season to have them all,” and that’s why you have, like, Mike O’Brien, Tim Heidecker, Rajat Suresh, Jeremy Levick and Alyssa Limperis. A lot of our seasons before, our guest stars have been people who’ve played vampires before, and we decided this season, let’s just use all the funniest people that we’ve always wanted to use.
Simms Wasn’t Able To Bring Waititi & Clement Back For A Practical Reason
There Is Still A Nod To The Duo In The Final Season
In talking about guest stars, I did also want to ask, season 1, we got to seeJemaine and Taikacome back from the movie. Now that we are in the final season, can we maybe expect either of them, or even maybe Deacon, to finally make an appearance in this season?
Paul Simms: Those guys were very busy doing Time Bandits. So, I hate to disappoint people, but we made sure to pay homage to them by featuring them in some still photos, so they’re in there in spirit, if not in flesh.
Guillermo’s Transformation Wasn’t Originally Planned For The Show
“…we all thought, ‘Well, the show’s over, once he realizes his dream.'”
So, in looking at the story, I love that the dynamic between the vampires and Guillermo has not taken a 180 just yet, but is starting to get there, as he’s no longer dependent on them as much as they are on him. What is it like finding that dynamic, and how long can we expect that to last, since he is still living on the grounds there?
Paul Simms: Well, it’s interesting. Once Guillermo, in the previous season, became a vampire, and then decided he didn’t want to be a vampire. At the beginning of this whole series, we talked about, “Well, what happens if Guillermo becomes a vampire?” And we all thought, “Well, the show’s over, once he realizes his dream.” And then, we did that episode, and at this point, him wanting to be a vampire, it’s more about his relationship with all those people.
I think there’s something funny about the way they’ve — Nandor obviously has a quiet affection for Guillermo, but the rest of them just treat him like a minion. But it’s funny that now that he’s trying to leave that life behind and go out in the real world and live a normal life, the vampires still revolve around him so much that they convince themselves they have to go help him, so that they go out and follow him into the real world. It’s almost like your parents showing up at your first day at a new job, and you’re like, “I don’t need you here. I know what I’m doing.”
It’s also fun, because I think some of our most fun episodes have been the vampires interacting with the real world and their ideas of how humans behave, which are always so off by a few degrees. It’s fun seeing them in that office environment.
Simms Loves Pairing Colin Robinson With Laszlo
He Also Doesn’t Think Berry’s Character Will Admit He Knows He’s Copying Frankenstein
So, in talking about the vampires wanting to help, I’ve always found that Laszlo seemed to be one of the nicer vampires to Gizmo, and yet he’s not involved in the office storyline, from what I’ve seen thus far. Is there a particular reason why maybe he didn’t want to join in on the hijinks there?
Paul Simms: I think because he has much bigger projects that he’s remembered that he never finished, which is reanimating dead human flesh, and creating a new man. An idea that, according to him, no one has ever thought of before. Also, that storyline is him and Colin Robinson together, which has always been, since the first time we tried it, very funny to us. Because Laszlo, on the surface, is such a curmudgeon, and Colin is someone who is intentionally trying to be irritating to people, and seeing the two of them working together has always really been amusing to us.
Do you think Laszlo actually doesn’t know about the existence of Frankenstein, or is he being just facetious?
Paul Simms: I think he knows, but his pride will not allow him to admit that someone else did it first, or is more renowned for doing it. [Chuckles] It really makes me laugh every time someone says, “Oh, you mean like Dr. Frankenstein?” And he says, “I don’t know who that is.” He knows.
Jerry’s Introduction Awakens The Vampires’“Insecurities About All The Time They’ve Wasted”
His New-World Conquering Plan Will Have An Impact Leading Up To The Finale
So, this season also sees the introduction of a fifth roommate, and I know that you’ve talked about how he’s meant to re-energize them into conquering the New World. Is that going to have a long-standing impact for the entire season, especially going into the finale?
Paul Simms: It is, sort of, because whenever you have a friend group, and then you add one more person, everyone knows how it is, it sort of throws the dynamic off. And here’s someone who came back after a long time and said, “Hold it. What happened to you guys? You used to be merciless, and you used to be a scientist, and what happened to all the dreams that you had?” So, even though he’s telling them, “We’ve got to get back to conquering the New World,” he’s also awakened in all of them their insecurities about all the time they’ve wasted, and made them basically scatter off in their other directions, which only proves frustrating to him in a fun way, of course.
Doug Jones' Baron Will Be Back To His Rejuvenated Self
“I’ll give you a hot [scoop]…”
I think I might be coming up on time, so I did also want to ask you really quickly. I spoke with Doug Jones recently for hisNosferatumovie coming up, and he mentioned that we will see The Baron again this season. I’d love to hear if you can share any insight for what we can expect, especially since the last time we saw him, he was still not rejuvenated just yet.
Paul Simms: I’ll give you a hot [scoop], he discovered the little creatures — the hybrid creatures that Laszlo made of Guillermo, that were half-Guillermo, half-frog — secrete a special cream that if he rubs on his skin, returns him to his former glamor. So, one of the most fun things about doing the show is that Doug Jones always has to be wearing 50 pounds of prosthetic makeup.
It’s been so fun creating a storyline where Doug Jones can just basically be Doug Jones, and be incredibly funny in the way that he is, and not have to be some kind of creature, and you only see it in his body language, and in his eyes. So yeah, we didn’t want the charred, crispy, burned-up Baron. We wanted the actual beautiful, stately Baron, so you’ll see he has some great stuff in this season.
AboutWhat We Do In The ShadowsSeason 6
What We Do in the Shadows documents the nightly exploits of vampire roommates Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) as they navigate the modern world of Staten Island with the help of their former familiar and current human friend, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) as well as their vampire bureaucrat acquaintance, The Guide (Kristen Schaal).
After a very brief stint as a full-blown vampire, Guillermo is re-evaluating his life. Who is he if not a familiar who will do anything to please his Master in hopes of one day being turned into a vampire? Meanwhile, the vampires are re-evaluating, too. When their former roommate reappears after a 50-year nap, they realize how little they’ve done in half a century — not one goal accomplished, not one dream pursued, not one part of the New World conquered (except for their street and part of Ashley Street).
In the sixth and final season of the Emmy-nominated comedy, Nandor, Nadja, Laszlo, Colin and Guillermo will enter the workforce, visit New Hampshire, go to a human dinner party, fête The Baron and conjure a demon — all while trying to find their place and their purpose in this crazy, mixed-up world.
Stay tuned for our otherWhat We Do in the Shadowsseason 6 interviews with:
The first three episodes ofWhat We Do in the Shadowsseason 6 premiere on October 21, followed by new episodes on Mondays on FX.
What We Do in the Shadows
Cast
What We Do in the Shadows, released in 2019, is a mockumentary series exploring the nightly lives of a group of centuries-old vampires residing in Staten Island. The comedic show delves into their interactions with each other and the modern world, providing a humorous take on the vampire genre.
