For its action-packed third season, FX’s The Strain is unveiling its overhauled opening credits. Above is your exclusive first look at the new title sequence, which showrunner Carlton Cuse tells us was designed in house at FX.

“A good credits sequence reflects something about the character of the show, and the first couple seasons we defined the show as a graphic novel type thrill with horror elements,” Cuse says. “We felt like it would be great to create a title sequence that sold that conceptually. There’s some really talented guys at FX who wanted to take a shot at it and we loved what they came up with.”

The Strain‘s new season begins Sunday, Aug. 28 (see the trailer below), and if you haven’t checked out the series previously (or fell off) Cuse says viewers can jump right in with the new episodes. After two seasons chronicling the gradual “strigoi” takeover of New York City, the shortened 10-episode new season actually starts where many post-apocalyptic stories begin.

“Unlike a lot of apocalyptic shows, we’ve actually shown across the first two seasons New York go from sort of normalcy to a state of chaos,” he says. “Now we’re at a place where there’s no denying what the circumstances are. So now it’s a full-tilt battle for the state of New York. And as New York goes, so goes the rest of the world.”

Image zoom