A look into the dark side of the galaxy at the new debut season of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord. Executive Producer Athena Yvette Portillo, Executive Producer/Supervising Director Brad Rau, and Executive Producer/Writer Matt Michnovetz join us for a series of illuminating conversations about bringing one of Star Wars’ most iconic figures back into the spotlight.

✨ Sam Witwer’s Masterful Return as Maul

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In this episode, we sink our teeth back into The Strain, the FX series that dared to reimagine vampirism not as gothic romance, but as a full‑scale biological outbreak. Running from 2014 to 2017, the show fused Guillermo del Toro’s signature creature design with a chilling epidemiological lens—long before global pandemics became part of everyday conversation.

But The Strain’s path to television was anything but straightforward. This week, we rewind through its evolution from page to screen, explore the creative battles behind its world‑building, and revisit how its viral take on vampirism reshaped the genre.

Featured Interviews

• Guillermo del Toro – co‑creator, visionary, and architect of the strigoi

• Miguel Gomez – “Gus Elizalde,” street‑smart survivor turned warrior

• Natalie Brown – “Kelly Goodweather,” whose transformation remains one of the show’s most haunting arcs

• Sean Astin – “Jim Kent,” navigating moral gray zones in the CDC

• Jonathan Hyde – “Eldritch Palmer,” the billionaire with a dangerous bargain

• Kevin Durand – “Vasiliy Fet,” fan‑favorite exterminator with a hero’s heart

• Mia Maestro – “Dr. Nora Martinez,” fighting the outbreak on the front lines

• Richard Sammel – “Thomas Eichhorst,” the chillingly composed right hand of the Master

• David Bradley – “Abraham Setrakian,” the Holocaust survivor carrying decades of knowledge and trauma

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In this episode, a tribute to Ray Harryhausen, a true pioneer of stop motion animation. Discover how his innovative filmmaking techniques brought iconic monsters to life, shaping the landscape of visual effects and cinema history forever. From an interview with the master from 1999.

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