Big news, but not so fast. Initially, in an interview with The Guardian promoting his new film What We Do in the Shadows, one half of the New Zealand comedic folk duo Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement shared the following:
HBO have commissioned a new, four-episode comedy show from Clement and [director Taika] Waititi, he reveals. “It was supposed to be this year but then we decided to put What We Do in the Shadows out ourselves,” [said Clement].
The interview made the rounds, the Internet went into a frenzy (myself included), and shortly thereafter Clement jumped onto Twitter to clarify his statement. He posted Complex’s article covering the exciting news and attached the tweet: “Before this rumour gets out of hand – we are not working on a 4 ep Conchords show for hbo…” He concluded, “I am working on another idea with them though, hence the mix-up.”
In other words, the new project from Clement is not a continuation of the cult musical comedy Flight of the Conchords but instead an entirely new concept. Still, you must admit your level of excitement simply cannot drop at that. Any new material from this guy (whether or not it’s directly related to FOTC) is sure to be pure comedic gold with, of course, more than a hint of some beautiful, beautiful sounds.
Since FOTC ended its two season run on HBO in 2009, Clement went on to star as the baddie in Men in Black 3 while his Conchords partner Bret McKenzie continued to star in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films and contributing to the new Muppets movies providing the lyrics and music for the soundtracks. (In 2013 the two participated in the sequel Muppets Most Wanted with Clement acting and McKenzie producing the music.)
In sum, Clement and McKenzie are not resurrecting Flight of the Conchords for HBO. Clement is working on a new project with the premium cable network with director Taika Waititi, and we can only hope and pray McKenzie is involved.
Now, you might be asking yourself, what is the future of FOTC, then? Clement did touch upon that in his aforementioned interview. “We talk about a movie every so often,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like we lost a lot of impetus over the last couple of years. But Bret, James [Bobin, lead director] and me, we all want to do a musical. It would be good to do something all together … I miss playing Flight of the Conchords gigs.”
Future episodes? No. A movie, a musical? Maybe. Long live Flight of the Conchords!
Stick it here to learn more about Clement’s in-development HBO project as soon as details release.