What We Do in the Shadows
Official franchise logo, as released in 2019.
Created by	Jemaine Clement Taika Waititi
Original work	What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires (2005)
Years	2005–2024
Films and television
Film(s)	What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Television series	Wellington Paranormal (2018–22) What We Do in the Shadows (2019–24)

What We Do in the Shadows is a New Zealand multimedia franchise centred on comedy documentaries of paranormal creatures, primarily vampires. The vampires are generally situated in a modern, mundane setting which contrasts with their more ethereal, gothic natures. Originally created byTaika Waititi andJemaine Clement for a short film in their early careers, the franchise received a theatrical adaptation in 2014 and achieved widespread popularity. A critical success, the franchise was then diversified into television, with the New Zealand seriesWellington Paranormal (2018-2022) and the American seriesWhat We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024).

The franchise originated in 2005 with a short film written byTaika Waititi andJemaine Clement, then still in their early careers. The single camera mockumentary,What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires was shot on a budget of only $200. The film was made amid a wave of interest in horror comedy at the time;Vox compared the short toShaun of the Dead (2004).

Clement and Waititi returned almost a decade later to write a feature length version, simply titledWhat We Do in the Shadows. In the interim both comedians had made successful careers, with Clement'sFlight of the Concords and Waititi'sBoy. The early 2010s had seen several horror comedy films flop, and there was some reluctance from producers to make the film, but work proceeded. It initially ran only in New Zealand in 2014, and did not attract enough attention at the time for international distribution. A North American release of the film was only possible through a Kickstarter funding drive in February and March 2015, which earned $450,000, and it sold well overseas.^[1]

The film was widely shared online, becoming the most pirated film of 2015 and a cult phenomenon.^[2] GIFs from the film were shared broadly;Vox has suggested that the nature of the film was well suited to the sort of viral clips used in GIFs- similar to the unintentionally memetic nature ofThe Emperor's New Groove. Both piracy and GIF usage aided its popularity.^[1] Two further shorts were also filmed around the time of the feature release.^[3]

Two television adaptations began airing in the late 2010s. The first of these was a New Zealand seriesWellington Paranormal, which followed the two bumbling police officers from the film as they join a paranormal investigation unit of theNew Zealand Police. The show was led by Clement & Waititi, starred Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary, and ran for four seasons. During theCOVID-19 pandemic the characters also appeared in a digital series of public health announcements, made by the New Zealand Government.^[4] A 30 episode podcast on the making of the show also aired from 2023 to 2024, with Minogue and O'Leary returning to host it.^[5]

An American series simply titledWhat We Do in the Shadows starred a new group of vampires in Staten Island and aired from 2019 to 2024. It was greenlit after a successful 2018 pilot, which was written byJemaine Clement and directed byTaika Waititi.^[6] The two occasionally made guest appearances as their characters from the film, but the show otherwise stars the Staten Island group- Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) and Colin (Mark Proksch). The Guide (Kristen Schaal) was initially a recurring character and then joined the primary cast from season 5.

The original 29-minuteshort film byTaika Waititi &Jemaine Clement, which inspired their 2014 film. In the short, three vampires—Deacon Brugh (Jonny Brugh), Count Viago (Waititi), and Vulvus the Abhorrent (Clement)—who share an apartment are interviewed by a TV crew.^[8]

A short film and advertisement campaign to promote theonline dating services FindSomeone and Dating for Shoes. The film follows Dating for Shoes founder Angela Meyer giving Viago a tutorial on creating his own FindSomeone profile: from creating a username, to describing his hobbies and interests.^[9]

A short film and advertisement campaign byWellington, as a comedic promotion that the city is a vampire-friendly place to visit. The film follows vampire Viago promoting the nightlife, cinemas and clothes shops of the city alongside his flatmates Vladislav and Deacon. As part of the campaign, the 'W' in theWellington Blown Away sign onMiramar hill was temporarily changed to a blood-red 'V'.^[10]

Vampire housemates (Jemaine Clement,Taika Waititi,Jonathan Brugh) cope with the complexities of modern life and introduce a newly turned vampire to the benefits of being undead.^[11]

A sequel to theWhat We Do in the Shadows, focused on the werewolves depicted in the film, originally rumoured to be titledWhat We Do in the Moonlight, was announced as being in development in August 2015.^[12][13] In May 2019 Taika Waititi said "We're Wolves is the film that Jemaine and I keep pretending that we're making. Every couple of years we say, we're making this new film calledWe're Wolves which follows the werewolves from the film," said Waititi. "I feel bad to even mention it now because we keep saying it, [but] it’s like a dad saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll be home for Christmas.’ I suppose we're just two dads out on the road enjoying our lives and going, 'We're not coming home for Christmas.' We'll send a postcard. It's not like we don't want to come home for Christmas. We would like nothing more but we have a lot of shit going on. When are you going to die? Do you have a ... deadline before your death? I guarantee it before then. Five years, 10 years? It took us seven years to write the [first] film, so you do the math. That was a sad thing to say."^[14]

The series follows Officers Minogue and O'Leary, who originally appeared as secondary characters in the 2014 film. They join a paranormal division of the Wellington Police Department under Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu). The show debuted on TVNZ 2 in 2018, and was renewed several times. The fourth and final season aired in 2022.^[15]

The series follows four vampire roommates and one vampire familiar living on Staten Island.

In May 2020, the series was ordered for a third season, while season two was still airing.^[16]Production for season three was set to start in February 2021, before being postponed to later in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[17]

Important COVID-19 Messages from Wellington Paranormal is a sixteen-episode digital web series and public service campaign released in 2020 byNew Zealand Police to inform the public on health, safety, and best practices during theCOVID-19 pandemic. The series follows Officers Minogue and O'Leary in home isolation, and features several guests including Sergeant Maaka and Officer Parker. The series also includesAndrew Coster andClarke Gayford as themselves.^[18]

• Features based on short films
• Films directed by Taika Waititi
• American mockumentary films
• 2010s parody films
• Vampire comedy films
• Vampire film series
• Wellington in fiction
• Werewolf films
• Television franchises
• New Zealand comedy horror films
• Mass media franchises introduced in 2014
• Film series introduced in 2014

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata