“What We Do in the Shadows” stars Matt Berry, Mark Proksch, Kristen Schaal, Kayvan Novak (via Zoom), executive producer and showrunner Paul Simms, and director Kyle Newacheck appeared in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday to preview (and celebrate) the sixth and final season of the Emmy-nominated FX comedy.
The Footage: Before the panel, FX screened the entire first episode of Season 6, which introduced Michael Patrick O’Brien (“Saturday Night Live”) as Jerry. Who is Jerry, you ask? He’s the former roommate of Nandor (Novak), Laszlo (Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin Robinson (Proksch), who they all remember with great affection as the “vampire’s vampire” — until they realize that they’ve all forgotten to wake him from the deep slumber that he entered in 1976.
Jerry’s return plunges everyone into an existential crisis, as he upends the dynamic between the vampires by reminding them of who they used to be. Meanwhile, we learn where Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) has been living since he walked away from vampirism and as Nandor’s familiar, and the vampires begin to question why, exactly, they’ve agreed to let a human film crew follow them around for so long.
What We Learned: Simms said that when they realized Season 6 would be the end of the series, they decided to lean away from the tropes that many shows fall into when they’re on the home stretch.
“We just wanted to make a really funny season that was not too sentimental or trying to tie up too many threads,” he said, before immediately backtracking. “I mean, for the super fans like you guys, all the threads will be tied up.”
Simms also teased that there will be several big cameos this season, featuring “the people that we just loved and thought were super funny” — including casting O’Brien as Jerry.
Similar to how, in the final season of “The Office,” the documentary crew became more integrated into the show, Newacheck also teased that the documentary aspect of the show “does get opened up towards the later end of the season in a very meta way that was fun to make.”
He added, “I will say that that I did get to play a director in the show at a certain point while I was directing the show, which was the most meta thing I’ve ever been a part of. So stay tuned, y’all. It’s gonna get wild and weird.”
Funniest Moment: Unable to attend in person, Novak appeared on the panel via Zoom — as his character, Nandor the Relentless, replete with vampire teeth and a painted portrait of Nandor in the background. When asked about whether Guillermo is ever going to sort out his feelings about Nandor, Novak-as-Nandor explained that Guillermo is still living with him with the level of delightful vulgarity one has come to expect from the show.
“I have to keep my voice down, because Guillermo is in the next room, jacking off into his pillow,” he said, before acting as if Guillermo was just off camera. “What? No I wasn’t talking about you. Shut the fuck up!”
