What We Do in the Shadows

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Fandom
Name: What We Do in the Shadows
Abbreviation(s): WWDITS
Creator: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
Date(s): 2005 – present
Medium: Film, Television, Webseries
Country of Origin: New Zealand, USA
External Links: at IMDb (film)
at IMDb (series)
at Wikipedia (franchise)
at Wikipedia (film)
at Wikipedia (series)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

What We Do in the Shadows is a New Zealand & American franchise created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi.

It consists of a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary based on a 2005 short-film, a web series and two spin-off tv shows: Wellington Paranormal (started airing 2018) and a US-based remake/spin-off of the original movie, What We Do in the Shadows (started airing 2019). A possible second full-length mockumentary, focusing on the werewolf pack that appears in the original mockumentary movie (led by Rhys Darby), has been floated for years.

The common threads between the franchise's installments are the paranormal themes and the mockumentary format.

Both "What We Do in the Shadows" works focus on a group of vampires who live in shared accomodation.

Canon Overview

The 2014 mockumentary follows four vampire housemates — Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr — who share a flat in the Wellington suburb of Te Aro.

The 2019 TV series focuses on three traditional vampires Nadja, Laszlo, Nandor and an energy vampire Colin Robinson, who live together in a house in Staten Island. Nandor's familiar Guillermo also lives under the stairs.

All of the traditional vampires possess supernatural powers, including levitation and the ability to transform into animals.

Fandom

WWDITS is a small fandom. The US TV show was included in Yuletide's list of eligible fandoms in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The movie fandom has also appeared in Yuletide.

A very small fandom for the 2014 movie existed, generating about 150 fanworks on AO3 between 2015 and 2022, often in crossover with other fandoms. It regained popularity following the release of Our Flag Means Death, which features a canon relationship between Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby's characters (respectively Viago and Anton in WWDITS and Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet in OFMD). This led to the fandom tag doubling in size over the Spring of 2022 as fans started writing Viago/Anton, and to the birth of niche crossover pairings such as Viago/Stede Bonnet or even same-actor crossovers such as Viago/Blackbeard.

There is also a tiny fandom for Wellington Paranormal (10 works on AO3 as of June 2022), focusing mostly on gen stories.

The vast majority of fanworks in the WWDITS verse are set in the US tv show universe and revolve around the slash relationship between Guillermo and Nandor, which ramped up in the canon in the show's third season, to the point that it - and the shipping - came to the attention of fannish mainstream media.[1][2][3]

Shipping

As of September 2023, on AO3:

Events & Challenges

Fanworks

Fanfiction

2014 Film

  • And there's a chance that things'll get weird. Yeah, that's a possibility. by pintpotjudas for postcardmystery, Anton/Viago, 2022. Viago gets dumped by the love of his afterlife, and everyone does their level (terrible) best to help him move on. Anton knows a thing or two about not getting the life you thought you were going to have. The camera crew are back to film every moment of it. More or less.
  • Unenthralled by RobinTrigue, Gen, 2015. 'Petyr has never had a friend who wasn't a vampire. Petyr has never wanted a friend who wasn't a vampire. It'd take someone pretty awesome to change that.'
  • Nice Jerseys and Other Adventures in Knitting by Tarash for Sarren, Gen, 2015. "Deacon sighs, and starts a new game of Minesweeper. Stu told him there was more to the computer than the internet, and Deacon’s been experimenting. But even finding mines is getting boring after 1356 times, so he decides to see what else is on there. And that’s when he finds the knitting program." (Basically, Deacon loves knitting, Anton and Stu and the other werewolves could do with more jerseys that don't tear apart when transforming a little, and the Ravelry forums get another passionate member.)
  • Heartbreak in Stages by tinkerty_tonk, Anton/Viago, 2022. Katherine has left Viago heartbroken. Luckily there is one werewolf who knows just how to make it better - Stu. He calls in Anton. Who promptly falls in love with Viago. Can they be together with Katherine's memory looming over them? With Anton's responsibilities to his pack? And will they ever manage to avoid the documentary interviewer's annoyingly perceptive questions?
  • missed connections by Skyuni123, WWDITS/Wellington Paranormal/Short Poppies crossover, 2022. Wellington's a small city. Anton and Viago keep on accidentally running into each other all across it.

TV Series

  • Scenes from an Alliance by Interrobam, Nandor/Guillermo, 2020. In the end, when all was said and done, the marriage of Nandor the Relentless and Guillermo de la Cruz would be remembered as a pivotal and defining moment in the history of human and vampiric society alike. In the beginning, however, it was mostly just a mess.
  • there is a shortage in the blood supply (but there is no shortage of blood) by zarya, Nandor/Guillermo, 2021. Something has to go pretty wrong in your life, Guillermo supposes, for you to reach a point where you’re doing heavy mental calculus to determine whether there's romantic subtext behind your boss’s offer to help you dispose of a corpse.
  • can't live long on starvation rations by ghostoftonantzin, Nandor/Guillermo, 2021. The temperature goes up, the air conditioner goes out, and Nandor is reminded what it's like to be driven near mad with lust.

Fanart

2014 Film

TV Series'

Podfic

Fanvids

Meta

TV Series

Archives, Communities & Resources

References

  1. ^ Rude, May (2021-09-24). "Guillermo & Nandor Are the Gay Couple We Want to See in What We Do in the Shadows". Out.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ ⠀, Bo (2021-10-04). "Will What We Do in the Shadows Ship Nando x Guillermo?". The Fandomentals. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Matadeen, Renaldo (2021-09-07). "What We Do in the Shadows: Is Guillermo in Love With Nandor?". CBR.com. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)


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