When it was first announced that New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi was moving forward with two television spin-offs of his hit 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, it was unclear if the series would ever make it overseas to America. Initial reports claimed that Waiti’s planned series might only premiere to New Zealand audiences. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, FX has stepped in to make sure American audiences get a taste of Waiti’s small screen work.
Waiti’s television plans include a series that will be based directly on the 2014 film. The other project (titled Wellington Paranormal) would take place in the same setting as What We Do in the Shadows but would follow paranormal investigators hunting down fantastical creatures such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies, instead of being about the creatures themselves.
This week, FX announced that it had picked up the pilot episode of Taika Waiti’s What We Do in the Shadows television series. Waiti will executive produce the series with his filmmaking partner Jemaine Clement, who worked on the original film as well. Clement will also write the series while Waiti will direct all of the episodes.
Both filmmakers are enjoying their fair share of success lately, with Clement’s HBO comedy Flight of the Conchords being picked up again for a one-hour special come spring, while Waiti is fresh off his Marvel hit Thor: Ragnarok.
The What We Do in the Shadows television reboot will be a half-hour comedy starring Kayvan Novak (Four Lions, Fonejacker), Matt Berry (The IT Crowd), Harvey Guillen (The Internship, Eye Candy), and Natasia Demetriou (Year Friends). Though Clement and Waiti both starred in the original film, it has not yet been announced if they will return on screen for the new television series.