American Horror Story season 13 details are coming into focus from the boss himself.
While promoting his latest series, The Shards, Ryan Murphy teased to Entertainment Tonight on Monday that the highly anticipated 13th season of the FX horror anthology will reunite fan favorites including Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett and Sarah Paulson — and in what capacity. Although recent set photos from filming in New York City led many fans to believe the season would revisit Coven, Murphy said that’s only part of the story.
“Everybody thinks it’s a Coven season and it’s not. It’s all the seasons,” he said. “Sarah Paulson is playing six or seven roles. Jessica Lange is playing all four of her iconic characters. Evan Peters is playing five characters… It is like the Avengers. They all come together to defeat the ultimate evil.”
Murphy went on to explain how he convinced several longtime stars to return, including Lange. The actress exited the series after 2014’s Freak Show, aside from reprising Constance Langdon (from season one’s Murder House) in 2018’s Apocalypse, and has long said she had no plans to return.
“As soon as I pitched it to them — many of them had said ‘no’ over the years — they were like, ‘Well, OK, I’ve gotta come back for that’. But I pitched Jessica Lange and she was like, ‘Oh shit, now I gotta do it,’” Murphy said. “It’s all of them in one season and it’s 13 episodes because it’s called ‘13’. I spent many, many months and many years writing it. I wanted to do 13 in a special way.”
The All’s Fair co-creator’s comments echo the excitement among the cast themselves. Peters, one of the franchise’s most recognizable stars and a frequent Murphy collaborator, previously told The Hollywood Reporter he was “shocked” Lange agreed to return.
“Ryan knows how to have those dinners. He will get you in a second. I was definitely shocked, but thrilled, honestly,” he said in January.
The season also stars Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, Alex Consani and Paul Anthony Kelly. Ariana Grande was originally set to make her American Horror Story debut in season 13 but exited due to scheduling conflicts with her Eternal Sunshine tour.
Here’s the official logline: “Bringing together an all-star cast, many of whom are reprising fan favorite roles, American Horror Story: 13 continues to build on the anthology’s decades-long legacy that has been streamed more than 700 million hours across the globe and spawned a legion of dedicated fans. American Horror Story has redefined the genre with various installments featuring a creepy murder house, a coven of witches, a traveling freak show, a haunted hotel and the apocalypse itself. Which iconic horrors will return to haunt the hallowed halls of 13 and what new terrors await? Light your candles, draw your pentagrams and prepare for a supreme surprise.”
AHS returns Thursday, Sept. 24, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FX and will stream the next day on Hulu in the U.S. It will also be available to stream internationally on Disney+.