American Horror Story has gathered a cult following over the six years it has been running, especially due to the inclusion of stars such as Lady Gaga, Emma Roberts and Evan Peters. Every year, fans of the show eagerly await the details of the upcoming season - who will be returning, who will be joining and what is this season's theme. Here's what we know so far...
This Season's Theme: "Cult"
The first official teaser-trailer was released during Comic-Con 2017, featuring circles of identically-dressed clowns, swaying and chanting, leaning out to reveal this season's title, "AHS CULT". Ryan Murphy has previously stated that this season will deal with Trump's election, and include a narrative within a narrative. How will the cult tie into this? Is it just the heavy-handed metaphor it appears to be? Additional teasers have included bee imagery as well, such as honeycomb, and an on-set photo of an actor covered in bees was leaked last month. With bees, clowns and Trump being maybe the most common fears in the world, this season is set to possibly become the scariest one yet.
The Cast
Series regulars such as Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Frances Conroy are confirmed to return for the new season alongside newcomers like Carrie Fisher's actress daughter, Billie Lourd, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World's Alison Pill, comedian Billy Eichner and controversially, Lena Dunham. Ryan Murphy is facing backlash from the fans online for having cast Ms. Dunham, with many fans saying that it's a step down from actresses past.
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American Horror Story why..? How do you go from Jessica Lange, to Lady Gaga, to Lena Dunham? pic.twitter.com/9REWfhoFYI
— Natayio (@natayio) July 20, 2017
The real American Horror Story is that Lena Dunham is still being given jobs after publicly admitting to molesting her sister
— B-Rizzle, Fo Shizzle (@Cpt_Bro) July 20, 2017
The Lead-Up
This year, FX are taking a different approach to their usual hint-dropping. During the Comic-Con event, they projected "AHS7.COM" across a wall along with the phrase "Join Us". When fans visit the website, they're invited to become part of an eight-week long, interactive experience through Facebook Messenger. It's widely speculated throughout the internet that this will be the beginning of an alternate reality game, where those who've signed up to the experience will have to complete weekly challenges and tasks to unlock exclusive hints, teasers and trailers. Unfortunately, this website is only available in the US and Canada, but at least we can follow along with the gossip the users will inevitably share.
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The Characters
Not a lot is known as to who will be playing who yet, except that Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters will play lovers involved in the titular cult. Murphy posted this sketch to Instagram three days ago:
This isn't the first time Peters and Paulson have been paired up for the show - they were also each other's love interests in the last season, American Horror Story: Roanoke.
The season is set to begin in the US on the 5th of September on FX. It's usually released two days later for those of us on this side of the pond, but this hasn't been confirmed of yet.
