After a certain point, a TV show's creative team has to start thinking about how to end things. For a show like Lost, it kind of just happens as it goes along, but in the case of FX's The Strain, the end has always been in pre-planned sight. Four or five seasons was always the goal, and with this year being the final run for Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's vampire epic, there's a promise to pull out all the stops. Star Cas Anvar spoke with CinemaBlend about Season 4, and he assured me that promise will be fulfilled.
All I'm going to tell you is this is the final season of The Strain, and when you go into it knowing that it's the final season, and the writers are writing it as the final season, all bets are off. All bets are off because we know that it's going to conclude, so they can tell the best, most exciting story they can. And they don't have to worry about any consequences.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Anvar, whose Sanjay Desai joined The Strain last year as an ally to the Strigoi cause. As Sanjay helped sneak in the nuclear weapons that kicked off the apocalyptic finale for Season 3, as well as helping Richard Sammel's Eichorst with various concerns, Sanjay was in the background, moving pieces towards the ultimate endgame that was The Partnership. But with season 4, it looks like Cas Anvar's character is a more important figure, as some trailers and clips have shown him presumably taking a position in the medical apparatus of The Partnership's infrastructure.
Of course, seeing as Anvar's Sanjay is a character created specifically for the series, with some leftover parts from the literary source material making up a good portion of his season 4 arc, things are all the more exciting, as we're not completely sure what to expect from Mr. Desai's actions. This is yet another example of why this last season, as well as any innovative adaptation of a literary source, is exciting to Cas Anvar, who you probably also recognize as ace pilot Alex Kamal in SyFy's The Expanse. In the spirit of that subject, I also asked Mr. Anvar about how he felt in terms of TV shows adapting, and sometimes diverting, from their literary sources. In his eyes, the following statement is what makes shows like The Strain exciting on the whole:
It's kind of like getting a DVD with added bonus material. It's something extra to enhance and enrich your experience of the original novel.
Authors Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro have both been involved with The Strain since the beginning. Hogan has written quite a few episodes throughout the series' tenure, and del Toro's directed episodes and sequences, while also approving where the show's course takes things. So while the end may be near, and the wheels are undoubtedly going to come off in the next nine episodes, it's all in the spirit of the three books that started it all. A spirit that's lead to Cas Anvar playing a pretty crucial part to this final season's events.
You'll learn more about the return of Sanjay Desai, as he makes his season 4 debut on The Strain, this Sunday at 10 PM EST on FX. Special thanks go out to Cas Anvar, as his time and remarks are invaluable to kicking this season off right. To see when everything else is heading to the small screen in the near future, head to our summer TV schedule.
