Vampires have been progressively defanged over the past few years. We have had the vegetarian vampires of Twilight, the tortured sexy vampires of True Blood, and the misunderstood romantic vampires of Being Human. Leave it to Guillermo Del Toro though to bring some evil back into the world of vampires with the TV series The Strain, based on a trilogy of novels he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan. These vampires are not pretty or sexy. love blood, and just want to make humanity suffer. It’s about time.
The Strain begins with the arrival of a Boeing 747 at JFK Airport, carrying with it a vampiric virus that will grow and spread throughout New York City. At the evil center of the tale is Jusef Sardu (Robert Maillet), an ancient vampire known as The Master. The series also stars Corey Stoll and Mia Maestro as CDC doctors called in to investigate the plan and will premiere on FX in July, just in time for summer vacation. It is planned to stretch from about 39-65 episodes, but not beyond that and Guillermo del Toro will also be directing as many of the episodes as possible. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
The latest teaser for The Strain depicts an eclipse that shrouds New York City in darkness, punctuated by the words “He Is Here.” While it does not give a lot in the way of plot – we can expect that as the premiere gets closer – it does certainly whet the appetite for some vampire badness. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of the vampires in action before long.
You can check out the all-too-brief teaser for The Strain below, and let us know what you think about del Toro’s vampire series in the comments. Is there still room in this world for some truly evil vampires?