2019 looks set to be a good year for Taika Waititi fans. The Kiwi genius’ next movie, Jojo Rabbit, is coming later this year, he’s directing an episode of Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian – and the TV adaptation of his vampire mock-doc comedy What We Do In The Shadows is about to hit the small screen. While Waititi isn’t starring in the show, don’t stress – he’s heavily involved, writing the series alongside Jemaine Clement. And the cast they have assembled includes the brilliant Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, and Natasia ‘Tash’ Demetriou. The first trailer for the series has arrived, and you can watch it here.
So there you have it – the tone, silliness, and dry New Zealand wit of the film has remained intact, even with the action moving to New York. The prospect of Matt Berry breaking America is an exciting one too – perhaps he’ll even end up boarding Star Trek: Discovery for a guest appearance, re-teaming with his old Toast frenemy Clem Fandango. And while Shadows’ ‘vampire flatshare’ set-up remains, the show has new ideas too – the ‘energy vampire’ who sucks the life from his colleagues with boring conversations and annoying behaviour promises welcome new takes on the old lore.
Thanks to the trailer, we now know that the series will debut in the US on 27 March – fingers crossed there won’t be a long wait for these vampires to wash up on UK shores.
Want more Taika? Listen to Empire's special podcast with Waititi on the art of screenwriting here, and read our massive celebration of Taika Waititi's career as part of Empire 30 in the February 2019 issue of the magazine, available to order online here{
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