Long before their 2015 movie What We Do In the Shadows, co-creators and co-stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi were honing their vampire comedy. At the New York Comic Con 2018 panel for the upcoming FX television adaptation of the comedy, the long-time friends revealed the origin of their undead antics.
According to Clement, a version of the characters dates back to a stand-up night:
“One of us was telling vampire jokes, I think it was me, like, [exaggerated vampire accent] ‘I flew from Transylvania, why are my arms so tired?†and stuff like that. And Taika, as a vampire gets up and starts heckling me. [Vampire voice] ‘Oh my old vampire rival, every gig I’ve done for 200 years you come and you heckle me.’ This was like 15 years ago.â€
Later, influenced by their love of movies like This Is Spinal Tap, the two Kiwis decided they should make a vampire comedy in the form of a mockumentary. In the movie they played vampire roommates, and while they never officially lived together, they revealed that they also spent a lot of time together in the same flat in their younger days when Waititi dated Clement’s roommate. “I just wanted to be closer to Jemaine, so I got that girlfriend,†Waititi joked.
The new series, which they executive produce, also follows a group of vampire roommates, but they’ve moved the show from Wellington to Staten Island. Though the series has a very similar vibe to the movie, there are some original elements, including a new supernatural being into the mix, an energy vampire who drains people (and fellow vampires) by being incredibly boring and low-key annoying. The show debuts in 2019.