On the heels of Tuesdays news that Hellboy actor Doug Jones might join The Strain comes news that The Lord of the Rings veteran Sean Astin has been cast in FX's adaptation of the vampire-novel series by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

Producer Carlton Cruise tweeted the announcement, which The Hollywood Reporter followed up with details about the role: Astin will play Jim Kent, a good friend of leads Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro). All three work with the Centers for Disease Control and get wrapped up in the spreading vampiric virus.

Meanwhile, Collider talked to del Toro about his unique creative process when it comes to writing the series.

"Chuck [Hogan] and I co-wrote the pilot, which I’m directing, I cast the series, and I go and rewrite and make my notes and collaborate with every single screenplay in the series," del Toro said. "We’re doing something that is not normal. We created a writer’s room, [and] I’ve been there from the beginning laying out the first season, and I am involved in every one of those screenplays of the first season, which we are writing before we shoot the series. Normally a series is shot in such a way that you’re getting the screenplay under the door the morning before you shoot the next episode. We’re mapping the first season completely so I can be involved. And I’ll be involved in the shooting of the first few chapters, the first probably four or five as an on-set producer, and then Crimson Peak shoots and I cannot be physically there."

The Strain is expected to start filming this fall before del Toro moves on to Crimson Peak early next year. The television adaptation also stars John Hurt, Kevin Durand, Jonathan Hyde, Jack Kesy and Laureen Lee Smith.