After the revelation at the end of Season 1 that Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) is a descendent of famed vampire hunter Van Helsing, What We Do in the Shadows is ready to take that character arc to the next level. In the third episode of Season 2, “Brain Scramblies,” Guillermo is going to make some new friends that could pose quite a bit of danger to his vampire masters.
“He’s looking for virgins, and he’s run out of other groups that he thinks will have a lot of them so he goes to a meeting of the Staten Island Mosquito Collectors,” executive producer Paul Simms revealed to GameSpot and other outlets during a visit to the set of the show. “And once they ask him some questions, they reveal that there are actually a bunch of vampire hunters, and that’s their cover.”
This group of vampire hunters is led by a man named Derek, played by The Office alum Craig Robinson. Speaking to GameSpot, Robinson described the character as a “militant mosquito hunter,” adding, “He’s all about shutting down the vampire nation.”
Derek is a no-nonsense vampire hunter that doesn’t find them quite as hilarious as viewers do, which makes for some pretty good comedy–especially given he and his team’s inexperience with them. “I think the more serious you take it, the funnier it is,” Robinson explained. “I know how ridiculous we look, but we are about going to kill some vampires and we had the tools, you know? We had stakes, we had crossbows, all kinds of garlic, crosses, everything. Every cliche we had heard [of], we made sure we [had it] covered.”
Then, along comes Guillermo. “He decides that it’s better to join them and work from the inside out, you know? So he infiltrates the club, but also keeps them at bay,” Guillén teased, while on set. “It’s a tricky balance for Guillermo just because he’s still protecting vampires that he loves, but he’s also making new friends and they’re actually showing him like respect and love, which is kind of hard to ignore.”
That means viewers will see Guillermo sharing many of his scenes with the Mosquito Collectors, which was one of the biggest highlights of the experience for Robinson. “I can’t say enough about how good he is. The second we started and all throughout it was my mouth was agape,” the actor said of Guillén. “He’s incredible. And he’s a throwback, in such a great way, to a Peter Sellers-type of comedy. He understands acting and comedy and it’s just so natural. So it was fun just playing with him. He opens up that playground of trust and silliness.”
It’s not all jokes, though. While Robinson wouldn’t reveal exactly how long he’d be sticking around, he’ll at least last until the fourth episode, “The Curse.” It’s there that Guillén teased, “Episode 4, so far, is one of my favorites because it’s like a mini-action movie.”
What We Do in the Shadows airs Thursdays on FX.
