The eighth installment of American Horror Story is officially slated to return to FX Wednesday, September 12th — and we’re shaking in our boots. If this next season is anything like its predecessors, then we foresee many sleepless nights ahead. We don’t know too much about the upcoming season, titled Apocalypse, but we know enough to get super stoked and very scared.
Earlier this month, during the Television Critics Association press tour panel, AHS: Apocalypse executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall said of the new season, “The story begins with the end of the world and then our world begins.” She added that the series will also kick off “in the real world [in a] very tangible and familiar [place].”
AHS: Apocalypse is a crossover season that merges the worlds of Coven and Murder House. This also means that many of our fave cast members reprised several of their previous roles — and the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, has not been shy in sharing who came back.
Sarah Paulson, for example, directed episode six and also filled the shoes of three characters, including psychic Billie Dean Howard and Supreme Cordelia Foxx.
And former Murder House alums Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott picked up their characters Vivien and Ben Harmon for the sixth episode of the new season.
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As Murphy shared on Instagram, Evan Peters returned as Murder House’s high school shooter character Tate Langdon. Plus, as Variety reports, Peters also played a “hairdresser” and directed one of the season eight episodes.
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Coven’s Taissa Farmiga (who also reprised her Murder House role, Violet Harmon), Gabourey Sidibe, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, and Stevie Nicks came back to film, as did Emma Roberts who, once again, played Coven’s Madison Montgomery — except this time, bitchier.
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We can also expect to see Kathy Bates, Adina Porter, Billie Lourd, and Leslie Grossman in entirely new roles this season. Additionally, rumor has it Cheyenne Jackson and Billy Eichner will also make appearances.
And, duh — of course Jessica Lange is involved. She comes back as Tate’s mother, Constance, from Murder House.
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As far as the plot is concerned, all we know is where we left off. At the end of the first season, we were grappling with the birth of the Antichrist (aka Michael, the child Vivien conceived after Tate raped her). And when Coven wrapped, we were feeling positive after Cordelia Foxx became the Supreme and the witch school removed itself from the shadows.
Woodall said during the panel discussion that despite the season’s theme, ” if we’re still here, the world didn’t totally end. What’s the fantasy of what happens next?”
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There’s really only one way to find out. Tune into FX on September 12th to reunite with the American Horror Story family and figure out if the end of the world is truly as doom-laden as we’ve always dreaded. (Something tells us that it definitely will be.)