In 2015, following the finale of American Horror Story: Freak Show, Jessica Lange—Oscar-winning actress and early AHS stalwart—announced to the press that she would not be returning for the anthology series’ fifth season. “We’ve had a great run. I have absolutely loved doing these four characters, and in all the madness, I loved the writers, actors, Ryan, the whole insanity of it,” she told the press at PaleyFest. But, “to cut to the chase, yes, I’m done.”
So how, more than a decade later, did Ryan Murphy mange to reel Lange back in as a season regular—and playing all of her former characters at once? Well, if there is one thing the veteran producer is known for, it’s delivering the unexpected.
For the better part of the last three decades, Murphy has created some of the most provocative shows on television, with American Horror Story being among his best-known and most enduring. Since debuting in 2011 with Murder House, the series went on to drop a rotating company of actors into totally different worlds every season—albeit with no shortage of crossovers and callbacks, most notably in Season 8, Apocalypse.
Now, the upcoming season—the show’s ominous 13th, arriving three years after Season 12, Delicate—is set to feature a slew of stars playing a medley of their most memorable AHS characters. While Lange will be reprising all four of her former characters, from Constance Langdon to Fiona Goode, Evan Peters will be playing five and Sarah Paulson will somehow step into six.
“I wrote a list of the top 10 characters. I read different polls. I’m always lurking online,” Murphy tells Vogue.
AHS: 13 will bring in some new characters, too—namely one played by Love Story’s Paul Anthony Kelly in a blond wig. Murphy refuses to share any further details about the part, other than that it is “the linchpin of the season.” Other actors joining the cast include the legendary John Waters, Alex Consani, Avantika Vandanapu, and Joey Pollari, whose character Murphy has described as another driver of the season’s storyline.
Below, Ryan Murphy opens up about developing the upcoming season, set to premiere September 24 on FX and Hulu.
Vogue: I read that your first call when conceptualizing this season was Jessica Lange. What about her and the characters that she plays made her indispensable to you?