The Empire Stage was PACKED Friday evening for what is retroactively being billed as the What We Do In the Shadows farewell tour. Almost the entire cast was there. Matt Berry (Lazlo Cravensworth), Kayvan Novak (Nandor the Relentless), Harvey Guillen (Guillermo) and Mark Proksch (Colin Robinson) were all in attendance, as well as writer/executive producer Sam Johnson, showrunner/executive producer Paul Simms and director/executive producer Sarah Naftalis. Sadly, Natasia Demetriou (Nadja) couldn’t be there. At the last NYCC What We Do In the Shadows panel, we missed Kayvan, now we missed Natasia. New York just can’t seem to be lucky enough to get the whole cast together at once! But what a fun panel.
This article does have some minor SPOILERS for What We Do in the Shadows season 6, so proceed with care!
The panel began with the and advance screening of the first two episodes of the sixth and final season of What We Do In The Shadows. This was a real treat for the huge Empire Stage audience, who were laughing loudly throughout both episodes. The new season premieres this Monday, 10/21 on FX and Tuesday 10/22 on Hulu.
When the episodes ended, Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall did a great job moderating the panel, poring on the questions while giving the panel space to answer and crosstalk with each other. Paul Simms hinted at what the vampires would be getting up to this year, including entering the workforce and visiting New Hampshire? When asked why the show was ending after only six seasons, Paul responded “It’s better to go out on top and better to go too soon than too late.” He also said he doesn’t want to keep going too long and see the crowds at conventions like NYCC panels trickle down to just a few people.
In regards to the vampires getting jobs, Sam Johnson said, “A lot of the office stuff has been a blast. Two of our writers are in the office crew, so sharp eyes, look out for (them). This is a great season. You’re all going to be happy.”
Harvey Guillen really likes the direction Guillermo is taking this season. The actor commented, “it’s nice to see him (out on his own). He’s tying to be self sufficient and self reliant, but they’re not letting him.”
Kayvan began his first answer in his Nandor the Relentless voice, much to the amusement of the crowd. “Well…just last night, Guillermo introduced me to a film. It was called The Goonies. In that film, there’s a line and with your permission, I’d like to adjust it slightly and it goes “Hey you fucking guysssssss! Oh you had a question?” And then switching out of his Nandor voice, added, “It’s going to be a great season.”
In regards to Lazlo and Collin Robinson’s evolving friendship over the past few seasons, Mark said. “It’s fun. They’re an odd couple and odd couples work well together. And working together, we have quite a bit of fun. We’re enjoying what you see on the screen. The sets are incredible. When you get to play in that type of setting, it makes the acting easier.”
Matt added, “In terms of the characters, Lazlo can remember that he brought him (Collin) up from a young kid, but Collin doesn’t remember that.” When asked which version of young Collin Robinson was his favorite to play, Mark answered, “Teenage Collin was my favorite. The writers find it funny to see my naked body. No one else in the world does, they find it very attractive. Any time I got to put on a outfit that was too skimpy, i loved it.”
in the new season, Lazlo obsesses with trying to bring the dead back to life in a Dr. Frankenstein kind of way. Paul Simms said, “We also wanted to so a Frankenstein type story, but have lazlo deny he has any knowledge of who Frankenstein is.” He described Collin and Laslo as “Neither would admit how close they are, but they are.”
The cast was asked what they will miss about the show. Matt Smith was the first to respond, saying, “Obviously the other actors. Being in the freedom of the situation.” Kayvan began his answer in his Nandor voice, but then quickly switched out of it. “Last night, no, i’ve done that one.” The crowd laughed hard at that. “I’m going to miss these guys. I’m going to miss playing Nandor for you guys.” And then switched back to Nandor to add, “Thankfully I will be appearing at the comic con in Austin, TX in february….so see me there. If not, then fuck you guys.”
Harvey will miss “Meeting some of my favorite writers and people, but most of all i’m going to miss the crew who work really hard to put this together. We’ll miss how hard they work.” Mark added, “The cast and crew after six seasons, you really do grow quite close, but they freedom you had on this show. The freedom and encouragement to improvise. To be allowed to go off on weird tangents of stuff. I love and have useless information on, I’ll never get to that again.”
When asked about improvisation, Matt explained, “It’s never kind of preplanned. Every scene you’re just thinking about getting to the end. Everything is just about amusing yourself if you need to say these things more than once. It’s just a huge honor that people want to see it all again.”
When asked what he learned as Guillermo over the years, Harvel said, “I feel like I can go out and kick some ass.”
Mark revealed a hesitancy he felt early on with playing Colin Robinson. “In season 1, i was little concerned about being actually hated. I didn’t want to be the Screech of a cool show. That was resolved by building up the character more.” He added, “This show would not have been six seasons without word of mouth from fans. Those were the shows I loved when I was younger, and I’m proud to be part of that. So thank you.”
When asked about why we never saw the return of fan favorite Laslo alter ego Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender, Paul explained, “It never would have been as good as the first time. It lives forever as a perfect thing. But you get to the last season of a show and you think do we want to give them another taste of what they love so much? I’m not promising anything, but we’ll see.” Oooh! Matt loved playing Jackie. He said, “The toothpick joke is one of the best jokes. It was a huge honor to do that and I’m chuffed that people love it.”
The Q&A at the end of the panel included two surprise video submissions by celebrities. Both Jeff Bridges and Mark Hamill (Jim the Vampire) recorded videos talking about their love for the show. Jeff wanted to know more about energy vampires. The panel recounted a story of being at an FX party and finding out Jeff Bridges was a huge fan and wanted to meet him. Mark described him as “A sweeter man you’ve never met.” Mark Hamill was grateful for being a part of What We Do In the Shadows and loved playing Jim the Vampire.
After the panel, all attendees received a fun, double sided What We Do In The Shadows Final Tour t-shirt. Distribution was a bit of a mess. Note to all future Empire Stage panels: give away your premium on the way in, or have an orderly distribution system on the way out. This t-shirt giveaway looked like the horse scene in The Walking Dead multiplied by a good thousand or so. But everyone who received a What We Do In The Shadows shirt seemed very happy with it.
And I don’t want to end this a down note about shirt giveaways. The panel was amazing. The crowd was electric. Hopefully this entire panel (and Natasia!) will return to NYCC if we’re lucky enough for an eventual reunion movie or bonus season!
Stay tuned for more NYCC ’24 coverage from The Beat.
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