Mark Hamill’s a Vampire in First Look at His What We Do in the Shadows Debut

In addition to being a strange and wildly funny series about vampires living in modern day America, FX‘s What We Do in the Shadows has become one of TV’s best hubs for fantastic cameos. The first season of the series included an episode that featured appearances by Tilda Swinton, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Trejo, and Wesley Snipes, and this seasons premiere saw Haley Joel Osment and Benedict Wong appear in hilarious guest roles. On May 13th, What We Do in the Shadows will be joined by one of its most popular guests yet: Mark Hamill.

Known best as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars universe, Hamill will be donning the dark robes of a vampire when he arrives on What We Do in the Shadows later this month. He plays an ancient vampire rival to Laszlo, and you can check out the first look at his character in the photo below.

“I remember it was Father’s Day and I had my three kids over and we were picking a movie to watch. I suggested Life With Father which is old school but I liked it as a kid because I’m from a big family. But all my kids rolled their eyes,” Hamill told EW. “They said it’s cornball so I asked them what they wanted to watch and my son Nathan suggested What We Do in the Shadows. I had never heard of it but he explained it was a reality show about vampires and I was very intrigued. I was completely unprepared for what I saw, it was so incredibly clever and compelling. It had all the elements of a horror movie and yet, it combined the magnificent with the mundane. Who thinks of things like this? I had to stop it multiple times to really absorb what we had just seen. It’s one of my favorite movies ever.”

The TV series is an adaptation of the What We Do in the Shadows movie, from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Hamill had his reservations about a TV version of the film, but fell deeply in love with it as soon as he saw the first episode.

“When I heard they were making a TV series, I thought I needed to lower my expectations. Neither Taika nor Jemaine was going to be acting in it, but I heard they were behind it so I remained hopeful,” Hamill continued. “We saw the pilot and, not only was it on par with the film, but it added elements that I had never heard before like the addition of the energy vampire. The whole cast is one of the best ensembles in television history. I would’ve been happy just visiting the set, they certainly didn’t need me to come in and mess it up somehow. But I thought I would check out the script and see what they had in mind. I expected the role to be like the next door neighbor or someone who works at the Department of Motor Vehicles. When I read I was going to play a vampire, I just about shot out of my chair. What a great honor!”

Are you looking forward to seeing Mark Hamill on What We Do in the Shadows next week? Let us know in the comments!