It feels like it was ages ago when Ryan Murphy finally announced that American Horror Story season 13 was actually in the works. And thankfully, with the premiere date (Sept. 24, 2026) looming, Murphy has given us a look into what we can expect — and it’ll be a lot.
In an interview that Murphy did with The Hollywood Reporter to promote his latest series, The Shards, the co-creator revealed that the 13th season is going to be a “tribute” of sorts to the entire series and that the star-studded cast will be reprising many of their previous roles from earlier seasons.
According to the article, Jessica Lange will be playing all four of her famous characters. Sarah Paulson will be playing six. Evan Peters will be playing five. I mean, good lord. Murphy himself even described it as the AHS version of the Avengers, where they all come together to defeat the “ultimate evil.”
Murphy stated this is something they would “never do again,” but that it was enjoyable and felt like everyone who was once a part of the series is back for one big season:
“This season is a tribute to all of the seasons, which we’ll never do again…but it was fun. It was like getting the band back together and once they got on the set with me, it was like we never stopped making this. Most of them had accents and they instantly fell back into their characters. It was fascinating and thrilling.”
Honestly, it felt like for a while we weren’t even going to get the 13th season because no news had come out about it. Then, all of a sudden last year it was confirmed that it was, indeed, happening, with a legendary cast of characters from earlier seasons coming back. Even if season 14 isn’t confirmed yet, all of this new news is still great to hear.
This will also be the first time that Murphy is sitting in the director’s chair since Freak Show back in 2014:
“I loved doing this season because I had not directed an American Horror Story since Freak Show, I think. Not since season 4. And I directed the pilot this year and I just love the process of going to all the castmembers, all of whom are very busy, and saying, ‘Hey, can we get the band back together?’”
Ariana Grande will not be in AHS season 13
There was one cast member who couldn’t make the filming process, though, and that’s Ariana Grande, who had previously appeared in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens. She had to bow out of season 13 due to scheduling conflicts from the tour she is currently on. However, Murphy said that there were no hard feelings and that eventually he’d bring her back in when she didn’t have anything stopping her from working together:
“You have to be respectful. Who is busier than Ariana Grande? No one. She had told me at the time, ‘I have this album that’s dropping.’ It was really, truly a scheduling conflict. I said, ‘OK, we’ll kick that can down the road,’ and she said, ‘Great.’ Ariana is a big fan of horror. She’s obviously done homages of that in her work; she did Scream Queens for me and loved the experience, and people love her in that show. So I will always work with her.”
With so much to look forward to in American Horror Story season 13, I'm even more excited to see these characters come back — and to return to the spookiness and classic horror I once loved.
Season 13 of American Horror Story premieres on Sept. 24, 2026, on FX.
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