STRAIN THEORY
Co-creator Chuck Hogan teases The Strain’s upcoming final season
After three seasons of unleashing a parasitic vampiric plague on the world in the TV adaptation of their book trilogy The Strain, executive producers Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (along with showrunner Carlton Cuse) have one final season to show how it’s all going to end.
Season three’s finale saw Eph Goodweather’s bad-seed son Zach pull the ultimate act of rebellion by detonating a nuclear bomb in New York City in retaliation for his turned mother’s death. The series returns with a much changed reality where The Master and his Strigoi now walk freely in the sunless, nuclear winter.
“We have a time break,” Hogan tells Red Alert. “So it was fun to think about how we were going to find our characters, catch up with their stories and what things have transpired. It really energises the story.
“This season is going to have a very different visual feel, especially the exteriors,” Hogan continues. “Guillermo is very involved in making sure that we have a look that matches the story. We’re living in a different Earth, and it’s going to be striking. Now that the atmosphere has changed, the Strigoi have more freedom and have used that to their advantage so we’re seeing a different order in the world.”
The writers also needed to decide how close they would adhere to the book trilogy’s ending. Hogan explains, “The show has run off on its own path. It was great to have some [book] story material in the vault, but we didn’t have to do that. In the end, thematically, the story is the story so there are some very clear ties to the book, yet the show is its own animal.”
As for the characters audiences have become invested in, Hogan says downtrodden hero Eph starts in a surprising place. “He’s kind of dealing with what happened by not dealing with it at first. But eventually he’s going to be forced to move towards some sort of resolution. As for a happy ending, he’s given up all hope for that at the beginning. That said, hope never really dies, and Zach has some interesting twists and turns in the season.”
Is the kid beyond redemption? “We’re aware our audience really react strongly to Zach in the negative which is great. We like to write to it, and then we like to play with that.”
And don’t count out vampire hunter Setrakian’s (David Bradley) crew, including Fet (Kevin Durand). Hogan says, “They have a goal but the plan is ever changing in terms of how to achieve it because the odds are really stacked against them. This new world order is so tightly controlled it’s very difficult to do the things you want to do, and acquire the things needed to substantially make in-roads in trying to overthrow the Strigoi.” Which is where unexpected allies like Gus (Miguel Gomez) might come into play. “We are aware since season one it’s so rare for him cross with the rest of the crew. So we’re going to mix things up a bit and follow those characters through a new iteration.”
The Strain returns to FX in the US on 16 July. The show airs on W in the UK.