10 Bloody Fun Facts to Know About What We Do in the Shadows Season 4

Our beloved vampires (and one bodyguard/familiar) might be in a rough spot after the events of What We Do in the Shadows season three, but fans of the FX show have much to rejoice about. Seasons five and six are on the way, and season four is just around the corner, debuting July 12.

io9 attended a press conference with other outlets earlier today, all about the show so far and what to expect from season four. No spoilers here, obviously, just some fun (and silly) facts that we picked up from the panel, which included executive producers and writers Paul Simms and Stefani Robinson, as well as Kayvan Novak (Nandor), Matt Berry (Laszlo), Natasia Demetriou (Nadja), Harvey Guillén (Guillermo), Mark Proksch (previously Colin Robinson, now “Baby Colin”), and Kristen Schaal (the Guide).

Before we dive in, here’s the synopsis of season four: “In the shocking season three finale, Nandor, Guillermo, and Nadja left Staten Island to go their separate ways while Laszlo stayed home to care for the creature that clawed its way out of the chest cavity of the deceased Colin Robinson—aka Baby Colin. This season, the vampires return to Staten Island to find their mansion on the verge of total structural collapse—and with no money to repair it. While Nandor’s eternal search for love finally yields results, Nadja finally realizes her dream of opening the hottest vampire nightclub in the Tri-State Area. Laszlo struggles with the question of nature versus nurture as he tries raising Baby Colin to be anything other than an energy vampire. And even Guillermo finds himself on a powerful emotional track that touches on his love for his family, and for others. With such terrifying locations as the secret supernatural Night Market, the Jersey Pine Barrens, and a wedding altar, and with more strange beasts, surprising guest stars and tap dancing than ever, season four of What We Do in the Shadows continues to make the case for blood and comedy. And this time with just a touch of home renovation.”

“Baby Colin is a growing boy who grows a little bit faster than normal humans,” Simms said. “I mean, obviously, the last time we saw him at the end of last season, he was a little baby. Only a year has passed and he already appears to be about a three-year-old. But he stays pretty young through most of the season, I’d say.”

That doesn’t mean his energy vampire powers will be lessened. They’ll just be… different, let’s say. “[He’s] a very active child with way too much energy. And he is something of a drain on the energy of the household, but not in the way that the adult Colin Robinson was, where he’ll bore you to death,” Simms said. “More the way, if any of you have a two or three year old, the way you find yourself exhausted at the end of the day, that’s sort of the way Colin makes everyone feel. However, the question is still open as to whether he’s going to grow up and be an energy vampire: [is] he just draining people’s energy the way every two and three year old in the world does, or [is it] a natural thing?”

“I don’t know that we’re teasing any Guillermo and Nandor thing,” Simms said. “We can say at the beginning of the season, Nandor has decided to get married and asks Guillermo to be his best man, which is a huge honor for Guillermo, who already, when we join this season, is so fed up with the situation that he has one foot out the door,” Simms said. “But it’s really his love for Nandor that keeps him there to be his best man, I’d say.”

Later, Novak added a little more to this. “I make Guillermo my best man before actually finding a bride, because Nandor’s logic is that if you make someone the best man, then that best man will help him find his bride. And then they’ll have a wedding, and then the best man will be the best man as well. So it’s kind of reverse-engineered, as he does most things.”

And it seems both Nandor and Guillermo will find love this season, just not in the way that fans might be hoping. “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,” Guillén said. “And so they’re both after love and [he] comes back with that understanding, but they still have this mutual love for each other. I think their love is really great indeed, but it’s not always in a relationship form.” (Simms also added we’ll be meeting Guillermo’s entire extended family in season four.)

“It’s better than you could anything you could ever imagine, ever,” Demetriou said. “I want [a vampire] nightclub to be opened up in every city in the world because it’s everything you could ever want. There’s no limits there. They’re undead! So as crazy as you want to go in a nightclub, you can do it and go there.”

“The vampire nightclub is mainly for vampires, but also they like to get some humans in there so that the vampires have something to drink,” Simms said. “And I think also you’ll see as the season progresses, like any semi-secret nightclub that would open in New York, it attracts its share of celebrities who want to come and see what the hot new scene is. And they might not realize that they’re going into a vampire nightclub and are at risk of dying. But I think there’s even one part where the Guide and Nadja are discussing the price of the drinks. And Nadja is saying, the drinks have to be very expensive because that attracts the wealthy people. And the wealthy people are like veal, like they get massaged and they eat rich foods and their blood is just delicious.”

What We Do in the Shadows has given us werewolves, trolls, ghosts, zombies, a siren, Babadooks, and more, and the roster will be growing in the upcoming season. We’ll be meeting an unconventional genie early in the season, for starters. Then, Simms said, “I think it’s episode four, ‘The Night Market,’ [which] is definitely our biggest, most elaborate episode we’ve done. All the vampires go to the Night Market, which is where all the supernatural creatures of the city gather in a hidden place to barter and trade with each other. It’s really an amazing episode, and we have the budget figures to prove it—but it’s a really cool episode where you see not just vampires but every kind of supernatural creature you can imagine, and some that we’ve never seen before, all mingling together.”

Like the feature film that inspired the series, What We Do in the Shadows is structured like a documentary film, with (mostly) unseen and un-remarked-upon camera and sound people ostensibly filming all the scenes, including fourth-wall-breaking interviews. From what was said at the press conference, it’s unlikely we’ll get to know these folks any better, at least not this season. “I don’t know,” Simms said. “I mean, we’ve discussed it in the writers room a few times and there’ve been a few times over the seasons where we’ve gotten glimpses of them. But as far as actual personalities…”

“Yeah, they’re pretty anonymous,” Robinson added. “I mean, it’s probably not crazy to think that they’ve been a different crew, sort of shifting throughout the seasons.” 

“But it is something that before the series is over we are going to, I’m not going to say reveal, but deal with,” Simms said.

The beloved “regular human bartender,” Laszlo’s alter ego Jackie Daytona, is one character fans would love to see return. But it doesn’t seem terribly likely, at least according to Berry. “[It has] nothing to do with me. That would be down to the two people [sitting] at the end [of the panel, referring to Simms and Robinson]. I’m just more than happy to be here.”

Can confirm: according to Simms, the flute will return this season. “When Laszlo and Nandor and Baby Colin and go to a hunting cabin with [their] neighbor Sean, you get to see all sorts of creatures—including many that Laszlo, once again, tames by playing his magical flute.”

While team What We Do in the Shadows wouldn’t confirm anyone specific other than Fred Armisen, they conveyed that yes, the guest-star game will be just as good this year as it has been in years past. “There’s some good ones,” Robinson teased. “Some good surprises … if you like true cameos, then [you] might have to look twice before you recognize who they are.”

“There’s [guest stars] that to give it away would spoil the fun of it,” Simms added.

“We have [had it scripts] but we’ve never gotten there: there’s a part of vampire lore that if you throw a bunch of rice on the floor, vampires have to count each grain before they can do anything else,” Simms said. “Sort of like an OCD thing … it’s such a weird thing. It requires so much explanation that we’ve never been able to figure out how to do it.” (Side note: The X-Files already did this one, anyway!)

What We Do in the Shadows returns Tuesday, July 12 on FX; each episode can also be found streaming the next day on Hulu.

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