'What We Do in the Shadows' teases unfamiliar final season

SAN DIEGO – "What We Do in the Shadows" is saying fangs for the memories.

Cast and producers premiered the first episode of the sixth and final season (coming Oct. 21) of the vampire-filled FX mockumentary comedy series at a Thursday Comic-Con presentation and also shared memories of making the cult hit.

"Early on, we wanted to leave a little too early instead of a little too late. We just wanted to make a really funny season that wasn’t too sentimental or left too many plot threads," said executive producer Paul Simms.

Added star Matt Berry, who was nominated for an Emmy Award last week for his performance as Laszlo : "It’s kind of the perfect time, I think. It's coming to the end and it’s as good as it ever was, and that’s all you ever want."

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Based on the 2014 indie film directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, "Shadows" follows the shenanigans of Staten Island, N.Y., vampires Laszlo (Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Nandor (Kayvan Novak), and "energy vampire" Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and Nandor's longtime human "familiar," Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). The new season introduces old housemate Jerry the vampire ("Saturday Night Live" alum Mike O'Brien), who's been in a "super-slumber" for five decades because Laszlo and Co. forgot to wake him up on New Year's Eve 1996. His reappearance causes friction in the house, and Guillermo, who's now living in the garden shed after rejecting his long-held wish of becoming a vampire, is recruited to help.

"What happens with the fifth Beatle?" executive producer/director Kyle Newacheck teased of Jerry's addition to to the dynamic. "You’ve got a great group of people and you introduce this new character and it’s going to disrupt it a little bit."

While Jerry works to revive the vamps' original "conquer the new world" mindset, Guillermo tries to find a life of his own after shedding his familiar role. "Unfortunately for him, the rest of the vampires follow him to make sure he’s OK. Imagine your parents showing up to your job, and that's what this season’s about," Simms said.

Simms' goal this season is to pick "the funniest people" to be vampires. So in addition to O'Brien, there'll be "great surprises coming up." And while Simms once said that Laszlo's alter ego Jackie Daytona would never come back, "who knows what’ll happen in Season 6?"

The Comic-Con crowd got the biggest kick out of "Shadows" star Novak, who appeared on the panel via Zoom, wore fake fangs and hilariously stayed in character, even when ending the show was being discussed: "I’m not going anywhere."