‘What We Do In The Shadows’: EP Paul Simms Teases Van Helsing May Be Latino

Rosy Cordero
·2 min read
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In the Season 1 finale of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, it was revealed that vampire wannabe and devoted familiar Guillermo de la Cruz is mostly mestizo and 3.12% Dutch — oh, and a descendant of Van Helsing, the vampire slayer. So does this mean Van Helsing could’ve been Latino in the world of Shadows, specifically?

“I think he should be,” Harvey Guillén, who plays Guillermo in the mockumentary series, said during FX’s TCA panel on Friday. “I think we can trace the family tree to how it came to be.”

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In Season 2, viewers learned a little more about Guillermo’s family with the addition of his mom, Silvia (Myrna Cabello), who the former spent some quality time with. Executive producer Paul Simms teases on the heels of the show’s renewal, that he has plans to introduce more kin in Season 4.

“These are questions that are going to be answered in a big way but not this season,” Simms said. “In Season 4 Episode 4, you’re going to meet all of Guillermo’s family in a way that makes him very anxious. We’ll learn that if he has Van Helsing DNA, then so does the rest of his family even though they might not realize it themselves. But we haven’t even shot that yet.”

He added, “We’ll also learn in Season 4 that Guillermo is feeling the effects of having dedicated 10 years of his life to these vampires and neglecting his family and his responsibilities to them and how he tries to make amends for that.”

Guillén says he’s proud of the positive feedback he’s received from Latino viewers who see themselves represented in the character.

“Guillermo has been such a positive character that has resonated with the Latinx community even with the smallest scene, like when he was with his mom,” the Mexican American actor shared. “We got so much feedback from people who felt like they were watching their moms. They even noticed the buñuelos that were in the background, little details like that. We can say it until we’re blue in the face but representation matters and I think we’ve done a good job representing. I look forward to continuing that.”

The level of authenticity goes beyond Guillermo and onto the rest of the characters who have colorful backgrounds of their own.

“Natasia [Demetriu] and the doll sometimes speak in Greek, and we’ve also done episodes about Nandor knowing some Farsi but not always remembering it,” added Simms with a laugh. “And Colin Robinson’s DNA test showed he is 100 percent white. So that was a really easy one for us.”

Season 3 of What We Do In The Shadows premieres September 2 on FX.

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