The 2014 New Zealand vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows is to get a six-episode spin-off TV show. The agency New Zealand On Air announced Friday that it is funding Paranormal Event Response Unit, which is conceived by What We Do in the Shadows writer-directors Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi as a small screen extension of the movie.
The show concerns two police officers, named Mike and Karen, who specialize in dealing with supernatural phenomenon. Clement is best known for being half of the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords while Waititi’s other directing credits include the recent Hunt for the Wilderpeople and the upcoming Marvel superhero sequel, Thor: Ragnarok. What We Do in the Shadows starred Waititi, Clement, Jonathan Brugh, and Ben Fransham as vampires who share a house in the city of Wellington.
Paranormal Event Response Unit may not be the only addition to the What We Do in the Shadows universe heading our way. Waititi has previously discussed the possibility of making a big screen sequel, called We’re Wolves.
“We want to do it, and we’re coming up with story ideas,” Waititi told EW last June. “The first film took us about seven years to make, and we don’t want to do that again. It’s a lot easier now that we have all the characters, and we know how we want to do it, and we know that we can do it. The first time we were doing it, we had no idea what we were trying to do, really. It’s not like we were inventing the mockumentary genre, but doing it with special effects, and trying to figure that all out, and make it funny, was a really, really long process.”
Waititi revealed that We’re Wolves will concern a power battle between lycanthropes played by What We Do in the Shadows stars Rhys Darby and Stuart Rutherford. “The same werewolf actors would come back,” said Waititi. ”It would basically be Rhys and Stu vying for position as the alpha male in the werewolf gang.”
You can see the trailer for What We Do in the Shadows, below.