Fresh off his breakout turn as John F. Kennedy Jr. in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story, actor Paul Anthony Kelly is officially joining FX’s American Horror Story Season 13.
The surprise casting announcement came during The Walt Disney Company’s Upfront presentation in New York, where AHS favorites Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Billie Lourd, and Emma Roberts appeared onstage surrounded by hooded Druids before Kelly emerged from the shadows to reveal his addition to the cast.
“I guess every nightmare needs fresh blood…and thirteen’s my lucky number,” Kelly teased during the presentation.
The upcoming installment of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s long-running horror anthology is already shaping up to be one of the franchise’s biggest seasons yet, with returning stars including Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Leslie Grossman, Ariana Grande, and more expected to appear when the series returns this fall on FX and Hulu.
Here’s everything to know so far about American Horror Story Season 13. Bookmark this page as we’ll continue to update it with new information as it’s announced.
Jessica Lange is back
Ryan Murphy has released first-look images of Jessica Lange in American Horror Story Season 13, her first appearance in FX’s long-running franchise since Season 8 in 2018. “Day One: the return of Jessica Lange!” Murphy wrote on April 6 alongside photos of the two-time Oscar winner wearing a blue dress and high heels.
At the same time, the producer commented on a fan’s Instagram post who wondered if the new season would be an “extension” of AHS: Coven and AHS: Apocalypse, which would mean “the witches” and “Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau” would be back. “Done,” Murphy replied.
In a video shared on Halloween 2025, Murphy confirmed that Ariana Grande would make her AHS debut alongside returning stars Lange, Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, and Leslie Grossman.
The teaser opened with a familiar line that sent longtime fans into a frenzy: “Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.” The quote — originally delivered by Roberts’ Madison Montgomery in AHS: Coven — immediately sparked speculation that the new installment could revisit the witches’ universe or at least draw inspiration from it.
All 10 actors have worked in the Murphy universe before. Grande previously starred as Chanel #2 in the satirical slasher series Scream Queens, opposite Roberts (Chanel Oberlin) and Lourd (Chanel #3).
Here’s everything to know so far about American Horror Story Season 13. Bookmark this page as we’ll continue to update it with new information as it’s announced.
American Horror Story is one of FX’s most successful series to date, airing for 12 cycles (and 132 episodes) since 2011 and winning 17 Emmys along the way. In January 2020, the cable network boldly decided to renew Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s horror anthology series for three more installments — Season 11, Season 12, and Season 13.
The tease
Paulson and Peters presented together at the 2025 Emmys and publicly called out their former showrunner for the fact that the 13th season still had not begun production, despite the 12th season airing in 2023-24.
“We haven’t really worked together since American Horror Story Season 10,” Peters noted. “I miss you.”
Paulson replied, “I miss you! Although, if you really missed me, you would call your agent and Mr. Murphy over there and get them started on Season 13.”
Murphy, an Emmy nominee for producing Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, grinned and pointed at both of his actors from his seat in the crowd.
The backstory
In October 2024, FX chairman John Landgraf gave an update on the future of AHS when he told Variety, “One of the reasons that I thought that American Horror Story was such a brilliant idea was because Ryan loves to invent things. He loves to create worlds. American Horror Story gave Ryan an opportunity to just create all these worlds.”
With Murphy’s new horror show Grotesquerie airing on FX in the fall of 2024 instead of AHS, that “never meant” it was over, Landgraf confirmed. “It just meant, let’s rest that, and put Ryan’s creativity and sense of invention to work doing something different now.”
The theme
In the same interview, Murphy explained that he’s “always working on” the next season of AHS, but that he hadn’t “really landed” on a specific theme quite yet for the 13th cycle. The producer noted, “There’s a couple things in contention.” As a reminder, the previous 12 AHS subtitles were Murder House, Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, 1984, Double Feature, NYC, and Delicate.
Two years later, Murphy hinted that the theme of Season 13 would be “witches” when he replied to a fan’s social comment on April 6, 2026. “Please make it a Coven extension,” the fan wrote, to which he replied, “Done.”
The cast
Murphy is always reflecting on his time with “the original, gangster cast” and even revealed to Variety, “I did have a wonderful conversation with Sarah Paulson the other day, and she was like, ‘OK, I think it’s time we get the band back together, so let’s make some calls here. … People love that brand and they loved me in it.'” The showrunner added, “So I’m gonna have dinner with Sarah and Evan Peters in the not too distant future, because they’re both dear to me. I love that show. I’ll never give up on that show.”
Well, it sounds like the dinner went well. The epic cast not only includes Paulson and Peters, but also Bassett, Bates, Roberts, Lourd, Sidibe, Grossman, and the original OG Lange, plus Grande.
For those keeping track at home, Paulson and Peters have appeared in nine seasons total, with their last one being Double Feature, and they are both Emmy Award winners for The People v. O.J. Simpson and Mare of Easttown, respectively.
The release date
Fans had grown accustomed to seeing a new cycle debut every fall on FX, but in 2024, that time slot went to Grotesquerie instead. And then, neither show premiered in the fall of 2025.
Murphy’s Instagram teased we can expect to see this spook-tacular season “Halloween 2026.”
Note that all of the prior installments debuted on the calendar in October (Seasons 1-5 and 11), September (Seasons 6-9 and 12), or August (Season 10).
The production
New episodes of AHS began filming on April 6, 2026, Murphy confirmed on Instagram. He also shared first-look photos of Lange standing at a window dressed in what appears to be Constance Lange attire.
The episode count
The episode count for AHS 13 will probably be around 10 hour-length episodes. The only ones to go below that number were Seasons 9 and 12, which made do with just nine episodes. Seasons 6, 8, 10, and 11 produced 10 episodes each, while Season 7 was 11 episodes, Seasons 1 and 5 aired 12 episodes, and Seasons 2, 3, and 4 had 13 episodes.
What about American Horror Stories?
Don’t be confused, AHS fans. American Horror Stories (with a plural ending) is Hulu’s anthology spin-off series where every episode tells a different spooky story. The show began in 2021 and has aired 24 total episodes as of 2024 (with Season 3 being interrupted by the Hollywood strikes). There has not yet been an official announcement regarding American Horror Stories Season 4.
What about Monster?
Despite its similar themes, Monster actually has nothing to do with the American Horror Story franchise. Murphy’s Netflix limited series instead focuses on different real-life serial killers for each season. Peters played the titular role in 2022’s The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, while Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch costarred in 2024’s The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and Season 3 starred Charlie Hunnam playing the title role in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
Originally published in October 2024; updated with new information in 2025 and 2026.
