‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Cast and Showrunner on Season 6 Premiere

In the Season 6 premiere of “What We Do in the Shadows,” Laszlo (Matt Berry) has to spare a few moments to praise the virtues of the name Jerry the Vampire (Mike O’Brien).

“That was us trying to save our asses,” showrunner Paul Simms said at the show’s PaleyFest panel on October 19. “Jerry the vampire is the worst name. But in the writers room we were like ‘Okay so there’s a fifth roommate — Jerry or something, Jerry the Vampire,’ and then we just never got around to changing it.”

Simms shared that the idea for Jerry grew out of a growing list of unanswered questions in the writers room and how they could be addressed so far into the show. Why do vampires permit the presence of a human documentary crew? What will the footage be used for? When will they conquer the New World?

“We had actually talked since Season 3 about the idea of the long-lost fifth roommate,” Simms added. “And also a little desire in our heart based on the TV trope of introducing your long-lost brother who comes in and stuff — what shows used to do like, ‘This will reenergize the show.’”

With Jerry having raised the question, moderator Kristen Baldwin asked Simms what role the documentary crew would potentially play in “What We Do in the Shadows” final season.

“Not as big a role as in the last season of ‘The Office,’ which I thought was brilliant,” Simms said. “I really liked what they did there, but yes, almost all your questions, will be answered in this last season.”

Another thing actually reenergizing the show is the loss of the previous fifth roommate (slash-familiar-turned-bodyguard): Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). No longer tied to the vampires or intent to become one himself, Guillermo moves into the garden shed, returns to his job at Panera Bread (something all humans do at some point), and then gets a corporate job.

“Where’s Nandor’s leverage on Guillermo?” said actor Kayvan Novak, who plays Guillermo’s former master. “Splitting them up and kind of making him go off and do his own thing, leaving Nandor [thinking] ‘Well he doesn’t need me anymore, so how do I work my way back into his life?’ I thought was a brilliant way of keeping that relationship interesting — for us as well.”

“He’s the eyes of the audience,” noted Berry (Laszlo’s exploits will be further explored on this website, don’t you worry).

“From the very beginning, over and over, every season, we talked about what would happen if Guillermo became a vampire,” Simms said. “We all said ‘Well, the show would end.’ He realized his goal. And then we often like to paint ourselves into corners at the end of the season, so at the end of Season 5, we did it. He was a vampire for an hour-and-a-half. It’s fun when there’s a challenge ahead for the season, like what? What happens now that he’s achieved his life purpose?”

With so much left to look forward to in the final episodes, Baldwin did ask another critical question: Why Panera Bread?

“That is absolutely like the name Jerry the Vampire,” Simms said. “‘He’s got a job at — I don’t know, Panera Bread, whatever…’ you never go back and fix it, and that becomes the thing.”

“What We Do in the Shadows” airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on FX and streams the following day on Hulu.