Before Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople came What We Do in the Shadows, Taika Waititi’s long-in-development passion project that went on to become something of a breakout hit for the New Zealand filmmaker.
Stylized as a vampire mockumentary, Waititi’s feature drew praise for its smart writing and eclectic cast of blood-suckers, and ever since gracing screens early last year, there have been mooted talk of a sequel.
Rather than keep the focus on Viago (Waititi) or Jemaine Clement’s Vladislav, the writer-director has revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the potential follow-up would shift gears to tell the tale from the perspective of the werewolves. For now, though, Waititi cautioned that the creative team are still very much in the pre-production phase.
We want to do it, and we’re coming up with story ideas. 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.
If and when What We Do in the Shadows 2 picks up steam, it’ll open up the path for Rhys Darby and Stuart Rutherford to reprise their roles as the beasts. Said Waititi: “The same werewolf actors would come back. It would basically be Rhys [Darby] and Stu [Rutherford] vying for position as the alpha male in the werewolf gang.”
Taika Waititi’s involvement in the What We Do in the Shadows sequel will no doubt hinge on the scheduling plans for Thor: Ragnarok, which is due to arrive in 2017. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, meanwhile, will open via limited release on Friday, June 24.
