THE STRAIN: Corey Stoll and Mia Maestro on Nora and Eph’s Scientific Journey

Nora and Eph may have finally made a breakthrough on THE STRAIN.

As more humans were turned into vampires, Nora and Eph have been working on a bioweapon to fight back. In theory, it’s a simple idea: infect the vampires with a contagious virus which can kill off all the creatures. But to work out the kinks (the virus turning fatal too fast to infect other vampires, etc.), they’ve had to experiment on two recently turned creatures…an ethical grey area.

“Nora and myself are doing very questionable things…in the goal of creating this bioweapon,” Corey Stoll (Eph) pointed out to reporters on the show’s Toronto set. “But we’re definitely not following the Hippocratic Oath. You know, human experimentation and shit like that—it’s pretty ugly.”

Of course, the matter is very personal to Eph: his estranged wife/mother of his son has been turned. And as viewers saw in the last episode, Eph used his subject’s tie to The Master to convey a clear message: he would rather kill his son and himself versus be turned. But Stoll pointed out another emotion might be driving his character to work so hard put an end to the rise of the vampires.

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THE STRAIN: Guillermo del Toro on His Involvement in Season 2, Straying from the Books, and More

THE STRAIN’s Guillermo del Toro (who co-created the series and co-wrote the books the show was based on) has an incredible impact on the FX drama thus far. And while some of his contributions are known — he directed the pilot, and a key part of the season 2 opener — del Toro (or, rather, a dream he had) was also responsible for something freaky: Eichorst’s “white room.”

“Well, I dream very little that is interesting; most of the time it is very boring,” del Toro told reporters as THE STRAIN was filming on location in Toronto. “But I just thought the idea of Eichorst being a connoisseur — he’s so refined and elegant — I thought well…[and] I remember an old porn story where they said porn actors eat only pineapple for reasons of interaction, and I thought this guy would probably feed his victims only certain vitamins and juices so the flavor is a little better. I don’t dream normal. It’s very strange.”

But also kind of perfectly awesome for the character/show, as well.

Check out more from del Toro, as he spoke to his availability to work on the show this season, as well as the series continuing to deviate from the books…

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THE STRAIN Season 2: FX Sets a July Premiere Date

THE STRAIN is returning to FX on Sunday, July 12th, at 10 PM, FX announced.

Per FX, “as the second season unfolds, the transformation has begun. It can no longer be denied — New York City is rapidly falling to an evil epidemic, and no one is coming to its rescue. Its citizens must fight or die. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his unlikely allies tried to take down the embodiment of this evil — the Master — and failed. Now Eph and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) concentrate on creating a biological weapon to wipe out the creatures, while Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) searches for an ancient book he hopes will reveal the strigoi’s entire history…and possibly a way to kill them. Meanwhile, the Master is out for revenge, unleashing new and even more terrifying breeds of bloodthirsty creatures after our team.  Our team must find a way to defeat him before the infection spreads too far and becomes irreparable … before they become monsters themselves.”

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