The eighth season of American Horror Story is upon us and it looks to be by far the most crazy and intense season yet.
Apocalypse will be a new tale with a nuclear apocalypse narrative and it will be a crossover with Murder House and Coven, along with being infused with a new story and characters. In April, creator Ryan Murphy said that the season would be set “18 months from today,” so in October 2019. “It’s still topical, but [set in] the future, which I’ve never done. I think people will like it. It’s different from what we’ve done before.” Some theorists noted that October 6th 2019 marks the 58th anniversary of JFK telling Americans to build nuclear bomb shelters, which could potentially fit in with the nuclear theme. Murphy also stated the new season is more fantasy-based than the past two seasons. “We’re sort of getting back to Asylum, and Coven. That’s the tone of it.”
“The story begins with the end of the world,” executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall revealed at Television Critics Association. “It starts in the real world. It’s very tangible, and it’s a familiar panic.”
Before details of the new season had been released, Murphy teased the theme during a panel at the Television Critics Association and it apparently made the head of FX fall “out of his chair”.
“I pitched it to [FX boss] John Landgraf today right after his TCA panel, and he loved it, but he’s asked me not to say what it is,” he said of the theme. “I told him and he fell out of his chair with joy. I think people will like it, it’s different from what we’ve done before, but I always try and do the opposite of what I’ve done on that show.”
The new season will focus on the Antichrist, also known as little Michael Langdon. In case you have forgotten, Michael is the offspring of Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) and the ghost of Tate Langdon (Evan Peters). At the end of Murder House, Michael was left in the care of his grandmother Constance (Jessica Lange) after taking his first victim by murdering his nanny in cold blood. Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson) prophesied, “a child born of human and spirit will usher in the end of times”, and it seem he might be doing just that in this new season.
Last year, Murphy posted an image on Instagram listing the nine circles of hell with the caption ‘interesting’, and we discussed this theory after the end of season seven. The list sees Murder House as Limbo, Hotel as Gluttony, Freak Show as Greed, Roanoke as Anger, Cult as Heresy, Asylum as Coven, and as Treachery. With seven American Horror Story seasons under their belts, only two deadly sins remain: lust and violence.
THE CAST
- Sarah Paulson as Billie Dean Howard, Cordelia Foxx, and Venable. Paulson will be directing the sixth episode of the season.
- Evan Peters as Tate Langdon and a comedic hairstylist. Peters will also be directing
- Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon
- Taissa Farmiga as Zoe Benson and Violet Harmon
- Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery
- Lily Rabe as Misty Day
- Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow
- Stevie Nicks as witchy Stevie Nicks
- Kathy Bates as Miss Meade
- Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie
- Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott as Vivien and Ben Harmon
- Adina Porter as Dinah Stevens
- Billie Lourd as Mallory
- Cody Fern as adult Michael Langdon, a.k.a the Antichrist
- Leslie Grossman as Coco St Pierre
- Joan Collins as the hairdresser’s grandmother
- Cheyenne Jackson – TBA
- Billy Eichner – TBA
- Billy Porter – TBA
- Jeffery Bowyer-Chapman – TBA
- Kyle Allen – TBA
The Coven Returns. What a thrilling night with the legend Stevie Nicks on the set of AHS. pic.twitter.com/wsI1FlfN1W
— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) August 19, 2018
American Horror Story premieres September 12th on FX in the U.S.
