Earlier this week Ryan Murphy released a video via his Instagram that confirmed the return of previous cast members as well as the introduction of new cast members to the cult favorite anthology series American Horror Story. According to The Hollywood Reporter, viewers can expect regulars such as Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, John Carroll Lynch, and Emma Roberts. Newcomers to season nine, subtitled 1984, include DeRon Horton, Gus Kenworthy, Matthew Morrison, Angelica Ross, and Zach Villa. Murphy has previously collaborated with Ross on his currently airing show, Pose, and has also famously worked with Morrison on Glee.
Two notable absences to the cast roster are series regulars Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson. That’s not to say that they’ll be totally gone from the project, The Nerdist notes that Paulson will be returning in a very limited role. This would be easy to arrange as she is currently collaborating with Murphy on another of his projects, this one at Netflix, as the titular character of Nurse Ratched in Ratched, a television spin-off series based upon the controlling nurse of the same name from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
The theme for the ninth season, dubbed AHS: 1984, has been hinted at as summer camp horror or 1980s slasher film. The decade of the 1980s introduced the world to a slate of now iconic horror films, including Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Sleepaway Camp. American Horror Story: 1984, its ninth season, will premiere on September 18, 2019 at 10pm on FX. The anthology series has already been renewed for a tenth season despite Murphy’s departure from 20th Century Fox Studios for Netflix.
The teaser, featured below, is underscored by Dan Hartman’s hit from the same year, “I Can Dream About You” and serves as both a cast announcement and a costume reveal for the main characters. As Murphy is known for big twists, akin to Roanoke or Apocalypse, fans have speculated that perhaps part of the plot is a spoof of a 1980s horror film.
One returning actor receiving lots of devoted fan attention is Lynch, a man long-term fans will remember as playing the complicated and terrifying Twisty the Clown in one of the show’s earlier season’s Freak Show. As the anthology series is supposedly set within the same universe, the character of Twisty has been referenced in later seasons. In the trailer below, Lynch is the first and final character to appear. Fans have already begun theorizing as to the relevance of the actor, the character, and the placement in the teaser.
American Horror Story: 1984 will premiere on September 18, 2019 at 10pm on FX.
Watch Murphy’s teaser below.