Taika Waititi says What We Do in the Shadows has gone on 'far too long': 'Feels like this is a 5-minute idea'

What We Do in the Shadows is ending this month after six seasons on FX, and executive producer Taika Waititi can't believe the vampire mockumentary has made it this far.

The New Zealand filmmaker — who also co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2014 WWDITS movie that inspired the TV show — recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to reflect on some of his best-known projects. In typically irreverent fashion, he expressed surprise that the small-screen Shadows has lasted as long as it has.

"This went on for far too long, but I'm proud of it," Waititi said. "I thought that the movie, when we were making the movie, I said to Jemaine [Clement], 'This feels like this is like a five-minute idea that we're stretching out into a movie.' Next thing, we made six seasons of the same idea."

Launched in 2019, What We Do in the Shadows follows four vampire roommates and their human familiar — played by Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Mark Proksch, and Harvey Guillén — as they navigate the modern world in screwball fashion. (The 90-minute film had the same basic premise but featured a different group of vamps.)

Waititi, who has cameoed in several episodes of What We Do in the Shadows, cheekily said that his favorite aspect of the show has been his relatively hands-off approach. "My favorite memory was not having to put vampire teeth in, and making other people do it," he said. "That was probably my favorite thing. And also, just these guys were possibly funnier than us."

The Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit director also recalled struggling to get the Shadows movie greenlit in the first place. "This movie was rejected by every studio that Jemaine and I pitched it to, because we said, 'It's going to cost $1 million,' and every studio said, 'We don't even know how to make a movie for that low,'" Waititi remembered. "So they said, 'Who's in the movie? Who's going to be in it?' We said, 'Well, we want to get Johnny,' and they went, 'Ooh, Johnny, yeah, okay, Johnny, do you mean Johnny [Depp]?' And we went, 'No, our friend Johnny [Brugh]. He's a landscape architect. He does landscaping in Auckland.'"

Waititi discussed working on the pirate sitcom Our Flag Means Death as well. "Wonderful show about pirates in which I became a gay icon overnight," he joked. "If you love pirates and hate heterosexuals, this is the show for you. I had the time of my life. I played Blackbeard. Me and Rhys [Darby] had a lot of romantic times on that set (off camera as well). Yeah, it was a fantastic couple of seasons of that show, and I was just very, very proud to do this."

Despite his positive feelings toward the show, however, Waititi noted that he despised his character's wardrobe. "I think my most memorable memory is that beard, which drove me insane," he said. "The character's very grumpy, and that was not acting. I hated wearing that beard and that wig with a passion. That was definitely someone else's hair as well. So that's the second time, or actually a few times now, I've worn other people's hair on my head. Listen, that's our craft, isn't it? You want to reach the pinnacle of acting success, you've got to wear other humans on your face."

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Watch video above for more from Waititi. The What We Do in the Shadows series finale will air Dec. 16 on FX.