Jemaine Clement breaks down the theatrics of the 'What We Do in the Shadows' season 2 finale (original) (raw)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of What We Do in the Shadows.

FX's What We Do in the Shadows wrapped its sophomore season Wednesday with the return of Vladislav, one of the main vampire characters from the film that inspired the show. The episode marked series creator Jemaine Clement's second time reprising his role as the immortal Lothario also known as Vlad the Poker, and his first appearance in season 2.

EW caught up with Clement to break down the events of the finale, "Théâtre des Vampires," which was inspired by the vampire theater led by Antonio Banderas' Armand in Interview With the Vampire.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We've now seen Vladislav in both seasons of What We Do in the Shadows so far. Can we safely assume you'll pop in at least once a season moving forward?

JEMAINE CLEMENT: You can't expect that! I wasn't even going to do this until the day before, because we had trouble getting anyone in time. We were hoping we'd get someone who has played a vampire before, like in "The Trial" last season with the vampire council, but we didn't have enough time. So I happened to be in Toronto, where we shoot the show, so I put my wig on again, but it wasn't planned.

Russ Martin/FX

What was it like for you to jump back into the character?

I work with those guys all the time from being a producer and director on the show. Acting with them is always such a good time, but it's their show. I did feel a little bit out of practice, actually. Mostly I've been writing lately and doing a little bit of acting, but the acting I've been doing is in a drama. It had been a while since I'd done a comedy.

Unlike last season, Vladislav was not joined by Viago [Taika Waititi] or Deacon [Jonathan Brugh] this time. What were those two up to that they couldn't stop by?

[_Laughs_] They weren't in Toronto, that's the only reason. If we would've had enough time, we would've gotten them.

With the vampire theater theme from Interview with the Vampire, we kept waiting for Antonio Banderas to show up. Was that your plan?

That was the hope, that Antonio Banderas would come for that episode. That's been our dream to have him on the show from the start. He's Guillermo's hero! As you know from the film, he works with the theater troupe with vampires pretending to be humans. Originally that was the idea, that it was going to be a theater group pretending to be vampires and we were going to make a joke about that — a group of vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires pretending to be humans… That really would've been an incredible episode if we could've had him turn up. We'll keep trying.

Speaking of Guillermo [Harvey Guillen], his role keeps getting bigger and bigger. Now that everyone knows he's a vampire hunter like his ancestor Van Helsing, what do you have planned for him?

The writers will have to figure that one out because I won't be in the writers' room next season. I'm leaving them with this big problem to work out. I think it's a good idea to end on a big cliffhanger, we did the same thing last season. Now they can figure out how to get out of this big mess.

What are the chances we'll see Guillermo meet Hugh Jackman on the show?

That would be great! Have him come on as a vampire killer.

This season Haley Joel Osment and Mark Hamill guest-starred on the show, and both have said they'd love to come back. Are you interested in seeing more from their characters?

Yeah, that would be fun! Not only to have the characters back but also to hang out with them again for a while. I don't know if that would happen again because they both went through a lot. [_Laughs_] Both had to be in freezing cold weather and below freezing temperatures at night. I wouldn't be surprised if they said no way.

Mark is such a huge fan of the movie and couldn't speak more highly about the opportunity to be on the show. What was it like having him on set?

Everyone on the set is a huge fan of Luke Skywalker, he is one of the biggest cinematic heroes of all time. A lot of younger people are also big fans of him from his role as the Joker [on Batman: The Animated Series and more]. There was so much excitement on the set when he was there. Honestly, to hear him say he saw our little movie a few years ago and that he was excited to come on the show really blew my mind.

You've had Kristen Schaal and Arj Barker from Flight of the Conchords on the show, but we still haven't seen Rhys Darby, who was also in the What We Do in the Shadows film. What are you waiting for?

[_Laughs_] Yeah, Rhys keeps saying the same thing to me too. In the world, we thought we'd have a group of American werewolves because we wondered how realistic it is to see them travel so often. For the record, I always want to work with Rhys. He's another one of the funniest people in the world.

The ultimate crossover for Rhys would be for him to call a vampire/werewolf band meeting, don't you agree?

Yeah, that's a good idea!

We can't see your other What We Do in the Shadows spin-off, Wellington Paranormal, in the U.S. yet.

Not yet! But I think it's going to be in the U.S. soon.

We can't let you go without asking for more Flight of the Conchords. What say you?

I'll text Bret [McKenzie] about it right now!

Seasons 1 and 2 of What We Do in the Shadows are available to stream via Hulu.

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