American Horror Story started out as a classic anthology series, with Ryan Murphy’s go-to actors — including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, and Jessica Lange — playing different characters every season. From Murder House to Asylum to Coven to Cult, the showrunner’s go-to troupe kept fans intrigued (and divided) for 15 years.
But in recent years, the world of AHS has gotten a bit more complicated. In 2018, Season 8 combined Season 1’s Murder House and Season 3’s Coven and hasn’t looked back since. Now, for its upcoming 13th season, these crossovers are reaching new heights with some actors playing multiple characters — including some fan favorites. Check out the trailer below:
There are too many familiar faces in this trailer to count, but we do see a lot of John Carroll Lynch as Twisty the Clown, who appeared in Season 4 and Season 7, as well as iconic filmmaker John Waters, who lampshades the inauspicious season number. “Thirteen stands for instability, chaos,” he says.
“He’s really riding that 13 thing extra hard, isn’t he?” Billie Lourd’s Winter Anderson (from Cult) says. Notably, she says this to her brother, Kai Anderson, who is played by Evan Peters. But we also see Evan Peters in other roles, as well as Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson.
This may be confusing, but Ryan Murphy has long teased this season as a huge collaboration between seasons. “Everybody thinks it’s a Coven season and it’s not. It’s all the seasons,” he said to Entertainment Tonight. “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.”
Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Evan Peters all play multiple characters in AHS: 13.
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That may sound like a lofty comparison, but it makes a lot of sense. This is the massive team-up every season has been building up to, but there’s one key difference: In The Avengers, they at least had the luxury of having different characters played by different actors. Perhaps a more apt comparison is the “time heist” scene of Avengers: Endgame, but across a whole season of television. “Evan [Peters] was, at one point, playing two different characters and talking to himself,” Murphy told Variety. “So it was really fun and tricky to make, and I loved that. I’ve edited almost all of them, and I think they’re really good.”
This season will be the true test of American Horror Story’s storytelling potential. Much like Endgame tested how sympathetic the vast ensemble of the Marvel Cinematic Universe truly was, this show will test just how distinct all these terrifying characters really are.
