DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
Could What We Do In The Shadows’ dysfunctional vampire clan grow in season five?
► SCI-FACT! Yana Gorskaya was a consulting editor on Thor: Ragnarok – directed by the Shadows film co-creator Taika Waititi.
→ THE LAST SEASON OF WHAT WE Do In The Shadows was a carnival of the bizarre: vampire nightclubbing, supernatural night markets, home renovation and energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch’s) bizarre cycle of regeneration from Baby Colin back to his beige, adult self. But perhaps the craziest thing yet opens the fifth season: Nandor (Kayvan Novak’s) longsuffering human familiar, Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén), getting the spotlight.
The last we saw Guillermo, he was so fed up at being eternally fang-blocked by his housemates that he offered to pay his other vamp pal Derek (Chris Sandiford) to finally turn him. Series director and co-executive producer Yana Gorskaya tells Red Alert that the season premiere picks up the story two weeks later. “The big question is: What’s happened with Guillermo?” she teases. “Is he or isn’t he [a vampire]? And how is that potentially going to play out and impact the house and the dynamics?”
Gorskaya hints that the episode covers a lot of ground, which includes setting up new, ridiculous pursuits for Nandor, Laszlo (Matt Berry), Colin and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou).
“[Showrunner] Paul [Simms] and the writers are really the best in the business because they have a way of re-pairing the pairings,” she says of the show’s annual rotation of its characters. “I think that’s their magic sauce for making new stories and new permutations. And also for the actors to get a new playmate and a new partner.”
Gorskaya praises the writers for not getting stuck in their own successful formulas. “In some ways, that may be tough on fans, because they love the things they love and the Easter eggs,” she says. “I mean, everybody wants Jackie Daytona to come back. But the writers are very much aware of not repeating themselves.”
With that in mind, Gorskaya says that in this season Guillermo’s situation is going to place him in Laszlo’s sights. “That was an unusual pairing that they hadn’t really had much of before,” she says. In turn, Lazlo’s new preoccupation means that Nandor will be left to feel like a fifth wheel, and he doesn’t like it.
Experiencing a similar vibe is Kristen Schaal’s the Guide (now a full cast member) who is feeling unsure of how to gain acceptance from the Staten Island vampire clique.
