Mark your calendars, American Horror Story fans: Season 13 finally arrives on FX and Hulu this September. And it’s shaping up to the franchise’s biggest season yet.
However, despite various online rumors, the 13th installment will not serve as a direct sequel to the fan-fave third season about witches, AHS: Coven. “Everybody has it wrong,” co-creator Ryan Murphy told The Wrap on July 27.
“Everyone thinks it’s a Coven season — it’s not. It really is a tribute to the fans. That number 13 is infused with a lot in the culture. It’s a magical and superstitious number. I can’t believe that we’ve gone 13 seasons and more. It’s not the final season.” He later added, “Nobody’s figured it out, but the witches are back in some capacity. And also, there are a lot of new characters.”
Murphy continued, “It’s an all-stars season. All of the actors play multiple parts in an homage to all of the seasons. So, Sarah Paulson I think plays six characters. Jessica Lange plays all four of her characters. Even Peters plays five of the characters, including characters we thought would never come back. And some people come back that are playing one or two.”
Excited yet? Read on for everything to know about American Horror Story Season 13.
THE RELEASE DATE
Season 13 premieres Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on FX and Hulu (and on Disney+ internationally). The first three episodes air that day, followed by the next three on Oct. 1, so fans will see almost half of the season in the first two weeks; the entire run will be 13 episodes.
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. 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).
COMIC-CON TAKEOVER
In July, American Horror Story took over San Diego Comic-Con in a delicious way with ice cream trucks offering sweet treats inspired by each of the previous 12 chapters.
The immersive pop-up was dubbed “13 Flavors” and offered photo ops with Twisty the Clown (AHS: Freak Show), the witch (AHS: Coven), the camp guide (AHS: 1984), and other iconic characters. On the final night of Comic-Con, fans were invited to a secret location to experience the cursed 13th scoop, hosted by Rubber Man (AHS: Murder House).
JESSICA LANGE IS BACK
Ryan Murphy 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.
THE CAST
In a video shared on Halloween 2025, Murphy confirmed that Ariana Grande would make her AHS debut alongside returning stars Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, and Leslie Grossman.
UPDATE: In the summer of 2026, Grande announced she had to drop out of the season due to her Eternal Sunshine concert tour. It’s unclear who ultimately replaced her in the production.
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 would revisit the iconic witches’ universe.
Later on, cast members like Paul Anthony Kelly (fresh off his turn in Murphy’s Love Story), Gabourey Sidibe, John Waters, Joey Pollari, Alex Consani, Madelaine Petsch, John Carroll Lynch, Mat Fraser, Mena Suvari, and Berto Colón also joined the show. The retired Frances Conroy has been rumored to return, but that’s not yet confirmed.
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
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.
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.”
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.
BRINGING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER
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, Lange, and more.
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 PRODUCTION
New episodes of AHS began filming on April 6, 2026, Murphy confirmed on Instagram. On July 27, while on the red carpet for his new series The Shards, the producer told The Wrap that production on Season 13 had wrapped earlier that day. He’s excited for fans to see the “all-stars” cast, cinematography, costumes, songs, and more.
The new showrunners for the 13th season are Ned Martel and Charlie Carver. They both previously served as producers and writers on the program, and Carver played Adam Carpenter in Season 11, AHS: NYC.
THE EPISODE COUNT
The episode count for AHS 13 will be 13 hour-length episodes, matching the series-high count of Seasons 2, 3, and 4. The prior installments produced nine episodes (Seasons 9 and 12), 10 episodes (Seasons 6, 8, 10, and 11), 11 episodes (Season 7), and 12 episodes (Seasons 1 and 5).
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. Season 4 is in production now, and it stars Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden.
Originally published in October 2024; updated with new information in 2025 and 2026.
