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The Lore of ‘What We Do In the Shadows’ Is Glorious

By Rachel Tolleson May 23rd, 2026, 2:33 pm
The cast of "What We Do In The Shadows" standing in a gothic parlor.

Stu Rutherford is already an iconic character in 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows, but it is his reason for being in the film that makes him even more iconic. In a bit of lore that not everybody knows, The Movie List Podcast recently took to Instagram to tell fans just how Stu became such a huge part of the feature-length vampire cult classic.

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The podcast, which is hosted by childhood friends Jon and Matt, recently posted an episode dedicated to the New Zealand classic. In it, they talked about the inspirations, how it spun into the FX serial classic, and what makes this mockumentary so great even over a decade later.

While discussing Stu’s character, they revealed that Stu was originally hired to be the IT guy for set. With the nature of the film, he was told that he would be in “a few scenes” but to just reply as himself. While he originally thought he would not be a main cast member and said as much to friends and family, he found out that it was a very different story when he got to Sundance and saw that he was on the poster.

How the character of Stu Rutherford came to be

In an interview from 2014, Jemaine Clement, co-writer and star, recalled how the script was crafted and what kind of role their friend Stu the IT guy would have.

“When we wrote the script and made him a big part of it,” said Clement, “we let him think he was going to be our IT guy, and told him he’d just be in a little bit. Every day he’d go, ‘So when do I help with the computers?’; and we’d say, ‘Oh, just put that costume on first.’ Because we almost keep him silent, I think, the whole time he thinks he’s just being made fun of.”

It is certainly a choice that translates to the screen, lending Stu a feckless sort of feeling as chaos continues around him. It is also important to note that Stu is the only human character in the film as well, which already sets him apart from his various inhuman castmates.

In fact, according to Clement, the fan response to Rutherford has nearly overshadowed his and fellow co-writer and star Taika Waititi’s response. It’s a testament not just to their filmmaking abilities, but also the bond the exists between the friends that makes all of the components of this film work together.

(Featured image: Unison/Paladin)

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Rachel Tolleson - Freelancer

Rachel (she/her) is a freelancer at The Mary Sue. She has been freelancing since 2013 in various forms, but has been an entertainment freelancer since 2016. When not writing her thoughts on film and television, she can also be found writing screenplays, fiction, and poetry. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her cats Carla and Thorin Oakenshield but is a Midwesterner at heart. She is also a tried and true emo kid and the epitome of "it was never a phase, Mom," but with a dual affinity for dad rock. She also co-hosts the Hazbin Hotel Pod, which can be found on TikTok and YouTube.