Off-the-wall humor might be the most obvious similarity shared by Marvel’s jukebox space opera Guardians of the Galaxy and FX’s vampire-infested mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, but the two projects have more in common than it might appear. For starters, the audience initially approached both of them with skepticism. Both a movie based on the Guardians of the Galaxy and a half-hour series based on a cult classic feature-length vampire mockumentary were expected to fail.
The Guardians were five of Marvel’s most obscure characters before James Gunn brought them to the screen, and since the team included a sadistic raccoon and a talking tree, the movie was expected to be the MCU’s first box office bomb. Of course, Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being one of Marvel’s biggest hits. Gunn approached the characters with sincerity and directed a fun, engaging, emotionally resonant space adventure with a perfect blend of heart and humor. The FX adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows similarly defied the skeptics who thought the original movie had explored all the comedic potential of a paranormal mockumentary with hilarious storylines about sirens, cursed hats, and a wellness center for depressed vampires.
While they both have a goofy comedic sensibility and both defied the audience’s expectations, What We Do in the Shadows didn’t share any clear parallels with Guardians of the Galaxy until its season 3 finale. Both the first Guardians movie and the final episode of What We Do in the Shadows’ third season killed off a fan-favorite character, stunning viewers everywhere, then introduced a reanimated baby version in the mid-credits scene.
Colin Robinson Is The Groot Of What We Do In The Shadows
One of the things that made What We Do in the Shadows’ TV adaptation such a resounding success is that the new cast is just as hysterically funny as the original cast. The show is filled with standout performances by both mainstays like Harvey Guillén as “familiar” Guillermo and scene-stealing supporting players like Beanie Feldstein as invisible vampiric LARPer Jenna. The new actors capture the same “bickering housemates” dynamic from the movie, but their roles are wholly unique. For example, two of the housemates in the series are married, and the writers have had a lot of fun with the Only Lovers Left Alive trope of on-and-off undead lovebirds who have been together for hundreds of years.
Mark Proksch gives one of the show’s most hilarious performances as Colin Robinson, an energy vampire who feeds on the lifeforce of both humans and fellow vampires by boring or irritating them. Usually, Colin is the target of his housemates’ ridicule, but Laszlo became uncharacteristically friendly to him in the back end of season 3. In the finale, he revealed that he was trying to show Colin a good time before his inevitable death on his 100th birthday, which he learned about from an ancient book. Like Groot, Colin is a standout supporting player who steals the spotlight from the leads, and like Groot, his death scene broke fans’ hearts. But with Colin, it wasn’t so much the death itself that was heartbreaking as the possibility that one of the show’s funniest characters could be gone for good. In both cases, mercifully, a well-placed mid-credits scene introduced a resurrected version of the character (as a baby).
Baby Colin Robinson Is A Lot Creepier Than Baby Groot
While “Baby Groot” is one of the cutest pop-culture creations in recent memory – at least until The Mandalorian’s Grogu blew him out of the water – What We Do in the Shadows’ “Baby Colin Robinson” is overwhelmingly creepy. Groot comes back to life even cuter than before; Colin comes back to life as a grotesque monstrosity.
When Ronan’s warship is going down, Groot wraps his branches around his friends to protect them from the crash. Rocket tells him the impact will kill him and Groot sweetly says, “We are Groot,” before making the ultimate sacrifice to save him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. But then, at the end of the movie, Gunn gave audiences a glimmer of hope as Rocket replanted his best pal in a pot of soil. The mid-credits scene confirmed that Groot would be back in Funko-friendly baby form as he danced to the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot’s death is played for dramatic effect and his resurrection is played for laughs. In What We Do in the Shadows, both Colin Robinson’s death and resurrection are played for laughs. Whereas Groot’s death scene brought audiences to tears, Colin’s is a sight gag. Nandor puts his hand right through Colin’s face while trying to prove he’s not dead, and the baby reveal in What We Do in the Shadows is a lot spookier than the one in Guardians.
The dancing “Baby Groot” presented a merchandising opportunity, but the slimy “Baby Colin Robinson” is pure nightmare fuel. After abandoning Nadja and Guillermo, Laszlo returns home to finally pay his respects to Colin Robinson. He finds a gaping hole in Colin’s corpse with a trail of slime leading into the other room, where he finds a beady-eyed baby that looks like the zombified infant from Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead with Mark Proksch’s face plastered onto it. In Guardians, Groot’s death is heartbreaking and his reanimation is adorable. In What We Do in the Shadows, Colin’s death is hilariously gruesome and his reanimation is delightfully unsettling.