What We Do in the Shadows Movie Actors Almost Starred in the TV Show

FX’s biting mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows, could have starred the original movie actors in its lead cast. The scathing vampiric satire, which recently toasted to a brilliant two-season run and an auspicious third season at the virtual Comic-Con@Home 2020, is an eponymous adaptation of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 Kiwi cult horror comedy. The savvy show has been praised for expanding its source material’s folk horizons and for finding fresh perspective in a narrative that doesn’t lose steam despite a two-season grind. Although Shadows has been inspired by a critically acclaimed movie, its plotlines, comic approach, and off-kilter portrayal of supernatural critters is charmingly independent of the film.

The lead bloodsucking shut-ins of Staten Island, Nandor, Guillermo, Nadja, Laszlo, and Colin Robinson, are played by Kayvan Novak, Harvey Guillén, Natasia Demetriou, Matt Berry, and Mark Proksch respectively in What We Do In The Shadows. The characters in the TV show are all different from the movie, which starred Clement (Vlad) and Waititi (Viago), along with Jonathan Brugh (Deacon), Ben Fransham (Petyr), and Jackie van Beek (Jackie). There are some overlaps between the show and the movie, including Nandor (TV) and Vlad’s (movie) vain egomania. But apart from that, both are largely different properties. One thing that the film and TV show have in common, however, is Clement and Waititi’s involvement. The stars have developed and appeared in both the projects. Their roles in the TV show were, nonetheless, mostly cameos, although they could have been surprisingly full-fledged.

In a conversation with Deadline, What We Do in the Shadows writer and producer Paul Simms revealed that the biggest challenge in developing the TV show was figuring out a suitable cast. The idea of maneuvering Waititi and Clement’s anaemic take-off into a TV series was first pitched by the film’s producer Scott Rudin. Rudin had taken his proposal to Clement and Waititi, who eventually came around after some discussions. For long, the makers contemplated retaining the movie’s original cast for its televised spin-off. But to prevent the TV show from looking stale, the crew ultimately decided to cast fresh faces. And as Simms also believes, the particular decision has been “fantastic for the show.“

Simms credits the What We Do in the Shadows cast for the smash success of their characters. The show’s actors improvise off their scripts in many ways, and their participation elevates the episodes’ gross quality. Simms also noted that while there is a lot of improvisation, Shadows‘ stars also keenly listen to the writers and to each other, and this collaborative approach aids the development of the show’s storyline. In the words of Simms, by the time the team starts editing, he cannot remember “what we [the writers] wrote and what they [the actors] came up with, which is very fun and satisfying.” 

While one cannot possibly deny the indie, deadpan magic of Waititi’s original film, What We Do in the Shadows clearly has an edge over the movie because of its diverse, marvel cast. Waititi and Clement are performative geniuses, but Berry, Novak, and Demetriou are better fitted for the TV format. Recasting enabled a female (Demetriou) and a Latinx (Guillén) lead in the largely white, male-dominated franchise, and it also opened a platform for unanticipated guest stars (Mark Hamill) and cameo actors (the starry vampiric council) to hop on. What We Do in the Shadows has scored eight Emmy nominations, including in the Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series categories, this season. And this success can be indisputably credited to the show’s prolific cast.

Source: Deadline

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