After more than a decade of self-contained seasons, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are collapsing the entire “American Horror Story” anthology into a single crossover event — and the tent-pole is Jessica Lange playing all four of her signature roles at once: Constance Langdon, Sister Jude Martin, Fiona Goode and Elsa Mars. She’s also added a fifth character she won’t name.
“There is a fifth character, but I won’t say who that is, and I’d be curious if anybody can figure it out,” Lange told The Hollywood Reporter. She only agreed to return on one condition: “I said I’ll come back if I can do all four characters.”
Murphy has been clear that this is a full crossover, not a “Coven” reboot. “Everybody thinks it’s a Coven season and it’s not. It’s all the seasons,” he said. “It is like the Avengers. They all come together to defeat the ultimate evil.”
The cast reads like a full franchise reunion: Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, Frances Conroy, Jamie Brewer, John Carroll Lynch and more. Murphy says Paulson is playing six or seven roles and Peters five, reviving faces like Cordelia Goode, Tate Langdon, Marie Laveau, Madison Montgomery and Twisty the Clown. Ariana Grande was announced for the season but dropped out in July over a conflict with her Eternal Sunshine tour before filming any scenes.
The season premieres Thursday, September 24, at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on FX, streaming the same night on Hulu. The 13 half-hour episodes roll out on a staggered schedule: three each on September 24 and October 1, then pairs every Thursday through the October 29 finale.
