Trivia / The Strain (TV series)

• Advertised Extra: Scan the credits of each episode and you'll find Jack Kesy (Gabriel Bolivar) in each one, billed as a regular. He disappeared after the third episode, and didn't reappear until his season-finale cameo. This was possibly because Kesy was indicted on charges of possession of cocaine and other related charges. Kesy's character was killed off early in season three in a major departure from the books.
• California Doubling: Set (primarily) in New York, but filmed in Toronto and Hamilton in Ontario with no real attempt to disguise it. If you look hard enough in some shots, you can spot various Canadian/Torontonian brands, such as Bank of Montreal, New York Fries, and Burrito Boyz, neither of which have any New York chains. Various speed limit signs are in kilometres, there are classic Toronto streetcars in some shots, and that's just scratching the surface.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Abraham Setrakian is a Romanian Jew, but David Bradley is English.
  • Yusef Sardu (the first body the Master inhabited) is Polish - his actor Robert Maillet is from New Brunswick by way of Ontario.
• The Other Darrin: Zach finds his actor Ben Hyland replaced with Max Charles from the second season onwards, accentuated by the character's own immediate change in personality and loyalty to the team.
• Playing Against Type: David Bradley, well-known to American audiences for his tendency to play Evil Old Folks such as Argus Filch, Walder Frey and Solomon, plays one of the good guys here.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Lesbian Nikki Taylor was played by bisexual actress Nicola Correia-Damude.
• What Could Have Been:
  • John Hurt was originally chosen to play Abraham Setrakian, and the pilot was originally filmed with him as the character. Hurt had to leave the show due to scheduling conflicts and was subsequently replaced by David Bradley.
  • Roy Dotrice was also considered for the role.
  • Vasily Fet was originally going to be played by Del Toro's companion actor Ron Perlman.
  • This makes the above mention of John Hurt's involvement Hilarious in Hindsight - we could have seen Hellboy and Professor Broom reunited! In an amusing addition, Richard Sammel (Eichhorst) dubbed Johann Krauss in the French version of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Imagine having them all onscreen at once!
  • It was originally planned to last for five seasons with the first season adapting the first book, the second and third seasons adapting the second book and the fourth and fifth seasons adapting the third book before it was shortened to four seasons with both planned seasons four and five to be compressed into the fourth and final season.