Guillermo del Toro will be strained for another year…

FX has picked up the 50-year-old Mexican filmmaker and producer’s horror drama The Strain for a third season.

The announcement comes only four weeks into the show’s sophomore season.

A breakout hit when it launched last summer, The Strain has been down in the ratings in Season 2 but continues to be strong in the adults 18-49 demo and delivers solid DVR gains each week. The second episode posted 2.6 million viewers in Live+3 and 1.5 million adults 18-49.

The thriller, from del Toro and Carlton Cuse, is based on the best-selling The Strain Trilogy by del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

“Guillermo and Carlton have delivered two thrilling seasons of The Strain that are captivating and visually arresting, doing justice to the original novel trilogy and meeting fans’ high expectations in the process,” said FX’s Eric Schrier.

In the current second season, New York City is rapidly falling to an evil epidemic, and no one is coming to its rescue. Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) and his unlikely allies tried to take down the embodiment of this evil — the Master — and failed. Now Eph and Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) are concentrating on creating a biological weapon to wipe out the creatures, while Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) searches for an ancient book he hopes will reveal the strigoi’s entire history…and possibly a way to kill them.

The third season of The Strain will air next summer.