A long-awaited sequel to the original What We Do In The Shadows movie could finally be set to take flight.

The 2014 Kiwi vampire mockumentary spawned a TV series starring Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou and Kayvan Novak that ran for six seasons on US channel FX between 2019 and 2024.

But a movie sequel, based around werewolves that the vampires encounter in the original film, has also long been mooted. 

Now Jemaine Clement has revealed that he and co-creator Taika Waititi have begun writing the script in earnest, with a view to completing it next year.

In the film, the vampires, including Clement and Waititi's characters, meet a group of werewolves led by Anton (Clement's Flight Of The Conchords' co-star Rhys Darby) trying but failing to reject profanity and violence.

A follow-up focussing on the werewolves and entitled We're Wolves was first announced a decade ago. But development has been slow, probably due to Clement and Waititi’s subsequent Hollywood careers. The latter said in 2019 that the sequel was 'the film that Jemaine and I keep pretending that we're making.’

But Clement has now told US entertainment site Collider that he and Waititi have 'started writing [this year]. For a long time, we were just talking about it. Now, we've started it. Very recently. When we get together, we do some work on it.’

He also explained that the film and television series were made very differently. 'The movie is 100 per cent improvised dialogue to a storyline, and the TV show’s very much scripted with occasional improv, so they’re quite different to make. The challenge with the TV show was trying to have that feel where anything could happen because it's improv, and we just did that by having a good cast, who were also amazing at improv. They're actually some of the best in the world, I think.'

Collider reports that Clement and Waititi are yet to decide what direction they'll choose with We're Wolves. The original film's approach was inspired by the improvisational nature of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but that proved challenging, given the feature's indie finances and ambitious premise.

'The film was super low budget,’ Clement recalled. 'It was less than $1million, and just a month of messing around, and then saying, "Can we improvise a whole movie with special effects and people flying? Can we do it?" It was like a challenge. 

‘Now we have to decide, "Are we going to script this one or are we going to do improv like the first one, or scripted like the show?" It's quite good to have the control of the shot. It’s really fun just making it up on the fly.'

And he clarified that he expected them to finish the script next year.

'At the pace we're going, 2027, for sure. It helps for Taika and I to be in the same country,’ – but he said the pair have been regularly communicating via Zoom.

Darby's participation in the sequel has not been confirmed. But he recently starred with Waititi in the pirate comedy series Our Flag Means Death and has previously reprised Anton in What We Do In The Shadows' other TV spin-off, the Kiwi series Wellington Paranormal. The X-Files parody, following two police officers as they investigate unusual phenomena, was shown on Sky Comedy in the UK.

Clement, who stars alongside Nicola Walker in Disney+’s new British relationship age-gap comedy Alice and Steve, was speaking to Collider while promoting Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It is the tale of how two singing prehistoric creatures, played by Olivia Tennet and Clement, first met.

The French festival has also seen the launch of Ricky Gervais' Netflix cartoon Alley Cats and the 2000AD adaptation Rogue Trooper, featuring a range of UK comedy voice talent, plus the announcements that Nick Mohammed's Young Magician children's books are being adapted for television  and the involvement of a raft of comedians in alien animation Not Alone.

Last month, after eight years, Clement also reunited with his Conchords bandmate Bret McKenzie for live shows in Los Angeles, prompting talk of a long-rumoured Conchords movie. But the New York Times reported: ‘They spoke about it with a certain Gen-X indifference that suggested it could also very well never happen.'

-by Jay Richardson

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