While John Hurt played Abraham Setrakian in The Strain "Night Zero" pilot, here's why the actor was replaced on the show itself. Guillermo del Toro has a long history with vampires, with his very first movie Cronos presenting a unique take on the creatures. The director's first big action film was 2002's Blade II, which featured Wesley Snipes' title hunter taking on a vicious breed of bloodsuckers dubbed The Reapers. These creatures had jaws that split open to reveal a gruesome barbed tongue beneath, and they felt like a dry run for the Strigoi in The Strain novels.
Guillermo del Toro co-wrote this pulpy trilogy with Chuck Hogan, with The Strain books detailing a vampire virus that first takes over New York and then the world. Ironically it started life as a TV series pitch, but it was only when the novels sold well that The Strain show moved forwards. The Strain season 1 cast Corey Stoll, Mia Maestro and Kevin Durant as the makeshift and mismatched team who come together to fight the growing Strigoi menace. The show was a solid horror series but definitely suffered from some unlikeable protagonists, especially in the form of young Zach Goodweather.
Despite this, the series attracted a fanbase with The Strain IMDb rating currently standing at 7.3 - so it obviously did something right. A major character in both The Strain TV series and novels is Professor Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor and expert vampire hunter, who has spent decades destroying the creatures and pursuing The Master. He's first introduced in The Strain episode 1 "Night Zero," played by the great David Bradley (Game Of Thrones). This wasn't the original plan, however, with John Hurt first attached to the part.
John Hurt had previously played another Professor for del Toro in the Hellboy duology, and Setrakian in the novels felt like he was practically written with the actor in mind. Hurt was cast in The Strain "Night Zero" in 2013, with production even being delayed until September that year to accommodate his schedule. While he did film his scenes for the pilot, that November it was announced he had dropped out of the show and was being replaced by Bradley.
The simple reason John Hurt left after The Strain "Night Zero" pilot is schedule conflicts, as the veteran star was incredibly active in the final years of his career. Following the show's 2014 debut Hurt appeared in Hercules, miniseries The Last Panthers and many others. The legendary actor would later be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, and sadly passed away in 2017. No stills or footage of John Hurt as Setrakian have ever been released, but there's no doubt he would have rocked the role.