“In all my years working, there's only so many times where a cast comes together where everybody is firing on all cylinders, is funny every take,” revealed Kristen Schaal, who plays The Guide on What We Do in the Shadows. Kicking off its fourth season tonight on FX, Schaal is no stranger to the series, but goes from a recurring guest role to a series regular. “To get to play with these guys for me is just the biggest gift. So I will continue to circle around and fan out and hope I get to do more.”
(Pari Dukovic/FX)
At the end of Season 3, Colin Robinson died and was reborn as an infant, Nadja moved to London to join the Worldwide Vampiric Council, Nandor went off on an “Eat, Prey, Love” journey, and Laszlo locked Guillermo in a crate and shipped him away. “We felt like with everyone between seasons having sort of scattered to the four winds, the only person who would ever pay any attention to keeping the house in good shape is Guillermo,” executive producer and writer Paul Simms said of the chaos viewers find the vampire’s Staten Island home in during the premiere episode. “Laszlo is not going to do housework. And it was very fun for our production designers and everyone to take our old mansion that we have and make it even more decrepit to the point that walls are caving in and there's raccoons running around and there's a tree that's fallen through it all.”
The mansion isn’t the only set to undergo a big change, with Nadja transforming the Vampiric Council into the hottest vampire nightclub. “It's better than anything you could ever imagine ever,” actress Natasia Demetriou exclaimed. “I want the Nadja Nightclub to be opened up in every city in the world because it's everything you could ever want. There's no limits. They are the undead. So as crazy as you want to go in a nightclub, you can go there at Nadja's Nightclub.”
Despite Laszlo’s failings around the mansion, Nadja is just as in love with her husband as ever. “I think it very much helps that we get on,” Matt Berry said of his relationship with Natasia Demetriou as being a key to the success of the on-screen couple, whose backstory lasts centuries. “It was a surprise that that sort of relationship has struck a chord, but I'm surprised by anything that strikes a chord that I've done.”
Laszlo’s defense for letting the mansion fall into dissaray is that he was taking care of Baby Colin. “The VFX team went above and beyond and really utilized every trick in the book that they could come up with to make it work,” actor Mark Proksch praised about his character’s three-year-old appearance this season. “It was really complicated for them to figure it out to make it look as seamless as it does, because it's a risk. Anytime you say, ‘We are going to turn one of the main characters into a baby,’ it could go sideways very quickly. But they really did a great job, and the writing works so well that I think it comes off pretty seamlessly.”
The proverbial heart of the show has always been the relationship between Nandor the Relentless and his familiar, Guillermo. “Being away from the group, Guillermo realizes a lot of things about himself and realizes a lot of things that he's been missing in life in general,” Harvey Guillén shared about his character’s arc in Season 4. “They are both after love and comes back with a better understanding, but they still have this mutual love for each other. I think their love is really great and deep, but it's not always in a relationship form.”
Guillermo’s quest for love is amplified by Nandor’s decision to take a wife. “I make Guillermo my best man before actually finding a bride because Nandor's logic is that he finds himself, he makes someone a best man, and then that best man will help him find his bride,” explained Kayvan Novak. “And then they'll have a wedding, and then the best man will be the best man at his wedding. So he's kind of reverse engineered, as he does most things.”
“The fun part about these characters is that they are supernatural and have lived for hundreds of years,’ shared executive producer and writer Stefani Robinson about the fun of each new season of What We Do in the Shadows. “There's a lot to mine from their personal histories. You really could just throw any backstory or any wild, crazy story at these characters, and it makes sense. It's really liberating, but, also, it's hard not to go too crazy sometimes.” But this season does promise some crazy, including encounters with more fantastical creatures, a worldfamous vampire act getting booked at Nadja’s Nightclub, and the expansion of Guillermo’s family. And the only place to see it is Tuesday nights on FX and streaming on Hulu.
Season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX. New episodes stream the next day on Hulu.