Taika Waititi And Jemaine Clement Are Making An Action-Adventure TV Series, Future 'What We Do In The Shadows' Spin-Offs On Hold
Get ready, fans of the fabulous Kiwi duo Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. The two have a new project in the works, and it's an action-adventure TV series.
The duo, who created What We Do in the Shadows (both the film and tv series), are teaming up again, but this time for something completely new.
"Taika and I are working on a new series right now which we just started writing," Clement said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I can't tell you much about it yet, but what's fun about it and what makes it exciting for me is it's something I always wanted to do which is long-form episodes in a sitcom. It's an action-adventure comedy. It'll be different from what I've usually done. I've made three sitcoms now, and I hope this one is still funny but more of an adventure series."
With Waititi and Clement at the helm, it's bound to be at least a little funny. These guys just can't help it.
Will There Be More What We Do in the Shadows?
Both Waititi and Clement have been busy between seasons of the hit FX series. They've worked on seasons of their other What We Do in the Shadows spinoff series, Wellington Paranormal, and Waititi directed Thor: Love and Thunder. With this new project in the works, will they still have time for their silly supernatural escapades?
When asked by EW if other spin-offs were a possibiliy, Clement was hesitant.
"We have talked about things in the past but I don't know how realistic it is," Clement says when asked if he'd like to expand Shadows beyond the FX series. "We're pausing on [Wellington Paranormal], we're not sure we'll be back for a fifth season."
Thankfully, those of us in the U.S. will have plenty of time to be upset about the series ending, as the first one debuts stateside July 11, 2021 on the CW.
Keeping it Kiwi
While Clement is proud of his New Zealand heritage and loves making art in his homeland, he has had to make some concessions to filming in Hollywood.
"I always thought we'd be doing things here [in New Zealand], and now I'm doing that, but I had to go to Hollywood first because it's harder to do here, in a way," he told EW. "When we were making Conchords, they weren't making very many New Zealand comedy shows then. They'd sort of given up on it. We had a much easier time in America than in New Zealand. After doing Conchords and because the Shadows movie did well, we got to make [Wellington Paranormal]."
Both Clement and Waititi brought a bit of New Zealand with them to Hollywood, though, a point Clement's son recently made him realize.
"My son and I were recently watching the season 1 finale of The Mandalorian and there was a New Zealand robot and I was laughing because it had a New Zealand accent. My son didn't know why I was laughing but I told him that at one point, we wouldn't have had that: a robot that talks like us. That was Taika's robot, of course."