Horror aficionados, rejoice! The Strain, FX’s skin-crawling vampire thriller series from Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan and Carlton Cuse, has been picked up for a second season, which will be shooting again in Toronto this November.
Corey Stoll, Mia Maestro, David Bradley, Sean Astin and Kevin Durand lead The Strain‘s ensemble cast, which also includes Natalie Brown, Jonathan Hyde, Richard Sammel, Jack Kesy, Miguel Gomez and Ben Hyland. The show focuses on a CDC scientist (Stoll) who attempts to contain and eradicate a vampiric epidemic released in modern-day New York City by the all-powerful Master and his blood-sucking minions.
Ratings have been gradually growing since The Strain‘s premiere in July, and a renewal was expected even before the series debuted, given its impressive pedigree. Del Toro is the acclaimed director of such films as Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and Pacific Rim, while Hogan is an established thriller author whose novel Prince of Thieves was turned into Ben Affleck’s Academy Award-nominated crime drama The Town. The two penned a trilogy of books from which The Strain is adapted. For his part, Cuse wrote for and exec-produced Lost, and he currently serves as the showrunner for Bates Motel.
The seventh episode of The Strain‘s 13-episode first season, “Occultation,” will air this Sunday on FX.
