Tuesday this week, FX Presidents of Original Programming Nick Grad and Eric Shrier announced that the network would renew ‘What We Do In the Shadows’ for its 2nd season. The series, based on Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 mockumentary by the same name, follows a small cohort of vampires who reside together in Staten Island. The characters vary in personality and background. For one, there’s Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), the group’s self-appointed leader and former conquerer from the Ottomon Empire. He’s accompanied by Laszlo (Matt Berry), a British up-to-no-good vampire who enjoys watching his superior stumble along their journey together. The vampiric trio is completed by Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), the temptress. The three lived together with Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), Nandor’s human familiar who aspires to one day become a vampire. The troupe is also occasionally visited by Colin Robinson (Mark Proskch), a vampire who prefers to leach people’s energy rather than their blood, and Jenna (Beanie Feldstein), a student at a nearby community college.
The first season, which premiered on March 27, 2019, was met with much praise, and scored an impressive 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also ranks top five among the 34 cable comedies that have debuted this year so far for audiences ages 18 to 34, and averages 2.81 million viewers.
Its success comes as no surprise. The creators, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, boast an impressive resume of comedic triumphs. Waititi recently received praise for directing Thor: Ragnorok, and Clement is a celebrated voice actor with credits ranging from Moana and Gentleman Broncos, the latter of which landed him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male.
FX president of original programming Nick Grad delivered a statement on the show’s success earlier today. “Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi and [showrunner] Paul Simms have more than delivered on the high expectations of Shadows fans by adapting the cult classic for television and building a passionate base of new and returning fans,” he said, as stated in a press release. “We also want to thank the rest of the creative team, including Scott Rudin, Garrett Basch and Eli Bush, and the incredible cast and crew for delivering such a fun and original series, and we look forward to working with them all on season two.”
Season 1’s finale is set to air on Wednesday, May 29th. According to Variety, season 2 of What We Do In The Shadows is set for release sometime in 2020.