David Bradley will replace John Hurt in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming FX series, The Strain. According to Deadline, Bradley steps into the role of Professor Abraham Setrakian just in time to begin filming this month for the show's July 2014 premiere. As previously reported, the vampire series received a 13-episode order, with del Toro serving as executive producer alongside Chuck Hogan, who co-wrote the books the show is based on, as well as Carlton Cuse. Though Hurt played the role in the pilot, he had difficulty committing to the show’s production schedule.
Professor Setrakian is a Holocaust survivor who escaped the extermination camps to immigrate to the U.S., where he became a pawn shop owner/vampire hunter. Bradley seems like an excellent choice for the brittle yet ruthless Setrakian, after having made a career out of playing brittle but ruthless men—most notably Argus Filch in the Harry Potter series and Walder Frey in Game Of Thrones. Although Bradley has taken a stab at cantankerous-but-harmless characters like Jack Marshall in Broadchurch and William Hartnell in the BBC docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time, his villainous turns are definitely his most memorable. Hopefully Bradley will enjoy hunting vampires as much as he enjoyed harassing Harry Potter and pulling "surprises" on the Stark family.