Over the past few months, Murphy has posted first looks of actors returning in character on his Instagram. This has included Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon (Murder House), Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Goode, aka The Supreme, (Coven) and Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery (Coven).
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight at The Shards premiere in July, Murphy further revealed more details on the seasons’ characters brings together elements from previous seasons.
“Everybody thinks it’s aCovenseason and it’s not. It’s all the seasons,” he said. “Sarah Paulson is playing six or seven roles. Jessica Lange is playing all four of her iconic characters. Evan Peters is playing five characters… It is like the Avengers. They all come together to defeat the ultimate evil.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise for fans was Lange’s return. The actress has repeatedly said to press over the years that she would not return to the show after leaving in 2015.
However, Murphy was able to convince her. He recently told THR, “It all started with Jessica [Lange] because Jessica, after we did the first four seasons, wanted to go off and do different things, which I understood completely. But I reached out to her thinking she would say no, and if she had said no, I probably wouldn’t have done it. She told me a story about how she was doing Broadway last season and she would go out after the show, and there were all of these young people who were there because they all watched her work onAmerican Horror Story. And she was very moved by that. I said, ‘Well, that’s funny, because my idea is for you to do all four of your favorite characters.’ And she said, ‘Sign me up. I’d love to do it.’ I was so grateful.”
“Before I started writing it, I had all of them — Emma [Roberts] and Evan [Peters] and Kathy Bates; Angela Bassett and Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman,” he said, in addition to Paulson.
While promoting Murphy’s other series, The Beauty in January, Peters told THR that he was “shocked” Lange agreed to return: “Ryan knows how to have those dinners. He will get you in a second. I was definitely shocked, but thrilled, honestly.”
(See more details on character’s in the trailer section.)