Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi finally sink their teeth into the We’re Wolves script

If you, like me, have been quietly waiting for a certain werewolf spin-off pretty much since vampires first started bickering over the hoover in What We Do in the Shadows, there is, at last, some actual movement to report. It’s not a green light, it’s not even a finished script, but frankly, considering the odds, I’ll take it.

The Long Road to 'We're Wolves'

Here’s the situation: More than a decade ago, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi (the chaps behind 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows) said they wanted to do a spin-off focused on werewolves. They called it 'We're Wolves' — and everyone, including them, seemed keen enough. At one point, Waititi genuinely thought it might be the next thing he’d make after Thor: Ragnarok. You can probably guess what happened next: life, fame, and Marvel-shaped career detours. Most crucially, nobody actually got round to writing it.

Apparently, that script has still not materialised — but Clement and Waititi are now properly sitting down and starting the writing process. In Clement’s words:

'We're writing it, actually. We started writing. 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.'

Told you it was incremental. Still, this does make 'We're Wolves' more real than it’s ever been since the original film.

What’s 'We're Wolves' Supposed to Be About, Anyway?

If your memory of the 2014 film is a bit wobbly, here’s the set-up: Shadows was a deadpan mockumentary following four ancient male vampires sharing a Wellington flat, bickering about domestic chores and rent just like actual flatmates, except with more blood. Among the best bits: meloncholy, very Kiwi werewolves (“not swear-wolves”) played by Rhys Darby and Stuart Rutherford. The plan for 'We're Wolves', as Waititi described it, is a comedy centered on a power struggle inside that fuzzy pack. Darby and Rutherford would return, squabbling to see who gets to be alpha. Sounds about right, really.

Clement’s also admitted they’re not sure whether this one should be fully scripted (like the FX spin-off series) or left open to improvisation as in the original film, which if you weren’t aware, had a plot but all the dialogue was made up on the day. No decision there yet, either, but they like the freedom of making stuff up as they go.

If you’re already doing the maths, Clement estimates they could finish the script by 2027. That isn’t a typo. Not 'film it', not 'release it'. Finish writing it.

Other Spin-offs (Yes, You Might Have Missed a Few)

• Wellington Paranormal: This one took the two bumbling cops from the Shadows film and spun them off into an utterly oddball TV series, sort of New Zealand’s answer to The X-Files if Mulder and Scully were deeply average community bobbies. It managed four seasons (25 episodes) on TVNZ 2.
• What We Do in the Shadows (FX TV Series): Not to be confused with the original film, this is a separate American take, featuring a fresh bunch of vamps — this time, based on Staten Island. According to Clement, most of that show is scripted, with the occasional bit of improv thrown in just to keep everyone loose, and it clocked up six seasons (a whopping 61 episodes).