As early as 2006, Del Toro proposed to set up a TV series called "The Strain", but when the president of Fox Broadcasting Company's network department insisted that it should be filmed as a comedy, the matter immediately fell through. Someone suggested that it is better to use the inspiration further and write a novel first. When de Toro invited Chuck Hogan to write a script together, de Toro wrote many short stories in English and Spanish, as well as scripts, but he was not good at writing legal novels. I'm not familiar with the terminology of disaster emergency response, nor do I have a good grasp of the " Channel State Information " style of precision. When Bram Stoker wrote " Dracula Season 1 ", his technique was quite modern, and the novel reads with a "Channel State Information" feel. De Toro also wants to give "The Strain" a professional and fast-paced feel, so that every detail looks realistic. De Toro produced a 12-page draft story. Huo Gan approved his idea after reading a page and a half. When the two collaborated in the first year, they had not yet signed any cooperative publishing agreement. The first part of the series is called "The Strain" and was published in 2009; the second part is called "Fall" and was published in 2010; the third part is called "Eternal Night" and was published in 2011.
After the first novel was published, companies began to extend an olive branch, hoping to buy the copyright of the adaptation of film and television works. However, De Toro and Hogan did not sign such an agreement at the time because they did not want the adaptation of the film and television series to affect their continued writing. It was not until the third book was published that the author began to approach each film and television company that had expressed their wishes one by one. In the end, FX Television Network was selected as the most suitable company because the scene they wanted to shoot was closest to the plot of the original. At the same time, FX also supports the author's idea that he hopes to shoot "The Strain" into a play that can be completed in seasons 3 to 5.
De Toro said that the first two novels can be shot for one season, and the third can be divided into two or three seasons.
FX President John Landgrave stated that the length of the episodes will be controlled to "between 39 and 65 episodes, no more, and no less than," and also said, "If an episode is just at the optimal length I don’t know what the effect will be after the end?"
When talking about the filming style of the series, de Toro said that in general, he wanted to try to shoot the film in the same way that I made my own movies, that is, to try to make it present a sense of reality. However, even the pursuit of realism has evolved into a rigid pattern. The feeling he wants to shoot is not like " Channel State Information " or " The Wire ". Although those are quite realistic, they are still mixed with a little bit of patterning. Their cameras will shoot from a very realistic angle. Although the show is not a documentary, they still want to shoot as realistically as possible. The overall appearance of the whole drama has been well positioned, and the method of filming and the expansion of the plot details can be flexibly adjusted at any time. After being immersed in the sense of reality, the audience will transition to another classic horror movie bit by bit. The shooting angle of the classic horror lens has also been modeled. It is shot by a smoothly moving camera, and the rendering of the picture has a strong atmosphere of suspense. Therefore, the crew adopts a mixed style that combines the old and the new. De Toro feels that this kind of mixed style drama is rare on the TV screen.
On November 19, 2013, FX booked a production plan for 13 episodes for the first season, and announced that the premiere time would be July 2014.
