FX’s The Strain will continue to ramp up the intensity and raise the stakes in its third season. Before taking the stage for their panel on Thursday, we had the opportunity to sit for roundtable interviews with executive producers Carlton Cuse and Chuck Hogan, and cast members: Kevin Durand, Ruta Gedmintas, Richard Sammel, and Miguel Gomez. During our chat they unveiled some key information about the show’s anticipated Season 3 and teased some of the storylines we will be seeing when the show returns. Here’s what we learned:
- The opening of Season 3 will give us a glimpse of where the characters are and what the state of the world is after the events in the Season 2 finale. “We open with Ephram and kind of follow him around,” Cuse said. There is no longer a debate on whether the strigoi are a threat or not. It will turn into a full tilt battle very fast and we’ll see that to a larger extent. “The scope and scale, and intensity is pretty high,” he assured.
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Fet will be on a different journey when the show picks up. “At the start of this season he kind of goes off on his own. He has a bigger plan of attack and not everybody’s behind it,” Durand teased, explaining why his character will be working separate from the group. Viewers can expect to see more of Fet’s underlying layers and while there won’t be much time for him to internalize the loss of Nora, he says it “triggers him to open up in different ways throughout the season, the vulnerability surfaces a little bit more.”
Image via FX
- Nora’s death will send Eph off in a different direction. “It has a very profound effect on [him],” Cuse said. “You’ll see how he’s doing in the aftermath of Nora’s death and he transverses a very interesting arc across the season. He and Dutch end up collaborating. It’s a good arc for him.” He teased.
- Dutch is still going through the effects of her horrific experience with Eichorts. Gedmintas said her character is going through post-traumatic stress and the alliances she tries to form with people from her past fall through which eventually leads her to form an alliance with Eph.
- Gus will continue to work with Quinlan and the Ancients, but Gomez said his character is trying to figure out his own path after all the losses he’s experienced. He feels like Gus and Fet are very similar when it comes to being judged unfairly and believes they’re a reflection of one another. Gomez pointed out that they’ve both learned to adapt to this new world and accept that they can die at any moment.
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A series of flashbacks will explain more about who Quinlan is and where he came from. “He definitely steps up this season,” said Hogan, adding that he had a lot of fun when it came to Quinlan’s origin story and he’s excited to see the audience’s response to that character’s development.
Image via FX
- Palmer’s loyalty towards the Master might be a little on the shaky side after the death of Coco. He’ll be exploring other opportunities now that his health is deteriorating and he will try to ensure his own survival. “I think you’ll see him strike up an unexpected allegiance with some other people,” Hogan teased. Whether those people are ones we know or new ones remains to be seen.
- A lot of discussion was put into the visual palette of the show this season. Cuse said there was extensive work done to create a very specific, graphic novel look. “I collaborate very closely with Guillermo [del Toro] along with the director of photography to create that. It’s very distinct and the goal for the show is that it doesn’t look like any other show on TV,” he added, “I think the look is a character, we really want our show to be visually driven as well as character driven.”
- There are no plans to introduce new vampires or other monsters to the show, but we will see the feelers in Season 3, and they have a more important goal in the story this year. Hogan also said there will be more mystery when it comes to The Master over the course of the episodes and having a new host will affect him in different ways.
The Strain Season 3 premieres August 28th on FX.
