We now know what comes after the Apocalypse: the 1980s! FX has officially announced that American Horror Story Season 9 is American Horror Story 1984… though stylized as AHS: 1984.
A while back, FX ordered American Horror Story Season 9 to keep Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series as its longest running drama series ever – Oh, and the network also ordered American Horror Story Season 10 for good measure. Yet, it sounded like an oversight that AHS Season 8’s subtitle was “Apocalypse,” since the series still had at least two more seasons to go. But that’s the beauty of this whole thing! AHS is an anthology series, with a cast and storyline that resets each iteration. It’s a wonder that each season doesn’t end with the utter destruction of humanity in the first place.
Having that said though, “Apocalypse” did break the mold a bit in being the first American Horror Story season to explicitly exist within the established universes of two previous seasons. It’s possible to speculate that certain seasons of American Horror Story take place within the same universe but Apocalypse didn’t even need your speculation. It was a definitive crossover of season 1, “Murder House,” and season 3, “Coven.”
American Horror Story 1984 Trailer
A new horror trope-teeming teaser trailer for AHS: 1984 has arrived! At this point, the over-the-top ’80s-ness (if you will,) of the footage seems to be a superficial surface that’s destined to be scratched, possibly revealing something more thematically nuanced as the series progresses. Otherwise, we’d just be in genre parody movie territory.
The previous trailer, seen immediately below, focuses on the season’s knife-wielding maniac who – besides utilizing dangerously impractical hitchhiking habits – is channeling Jason Vorhees in a big way. Additionally, the season’s eponymous era is represented musically by “On the Dark Side,” John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band’s hit (and megahit of the fictional rock band in Eddie and the Cruisers) and, appropriately, The Motels’ “Suddenly Last Summer.”
Back in April, Ryan Murphy first revealed the season’s title in the teaser trailer below.
Potential clashes with the upcoming similarly-titled Wonder Woman sequel aside, lifted the veil for the upcoming ninth season of American Horror Story, revealing that it will live up to the “horror” in its title by delving into one of the most prolific of the eponymous genre, slasher movies, specifically the ones we got in the 1980s.
AHS SEASON 9 is called…
A post shared by Ryan Murphy (@mrrpmurphy) on Apr 10, 2019 at 6:38am PDT
American Horror Story 1984 Release Date
American Horror Story Season 9, now titled AHS: 1984 is now officially set to premiere on Wednesday, September 18 at 10 p.m.
The September release date reveal was no big surprise, since the American Horror Story series has been remarkably consistent with its premiere dates throughout its long cable life. This is a fall show and it really knows it. The first five seasons all debuted in October, and the three most recent seasons debuted in September.
While you wait, you can check out all our American Horror Story Season 8 reviews here.
American Horror Story 1984 Posters
Check out these spectacularly classic-slasher-inspired posters for AHS: 1984!
American Horror Story 1984 Cast
AHS: 1984 continues to add to its cast. With the confirmed returns of anthology alumni in Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Leslie Grossman, the series will also welcome franchise newcomers in Matthew Morrison, DeRon Horton and Zach Villa. This reveal comes shortly after it was announced that surging Pose star Angelica Ross is also onboard.
The news arrives by way of a video from Ryan Murphy, which makes the official casting announcement in the most 1984 manner possible, with the cast (aforementioned newcomers included,) decked out in innately-80s (in some cases, GLOW-esque,) fitness attire to the tune of the late Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You,” a hit song from that year, which – and here comes the superfluous trivia – was buttressed on the soundtrack of the Rock-and-Roll thriller film, Streets of Fire (a nowadays-forgotten gem of the era from Walter Hill, director of The Warriors and 48 Hrs.).
To celebrate the first day of filming the NINTH Season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY, here’s the official 1984 cast announcement along with some amazing 80s lewks. Enjoy!
A post shared by Ryan Murphy (@mrrpmurphy) on Jul 11, 2019 at 9:25am PDT
Sarah Paulson, for the first time in the show’s 9-season history, will NOT play a significant role on AHS: 1984! In an intriguing turn of events, as reported by Variety, it appears that Paulson, the perennial star of the horror anthology, and muse to creator Ryan Murphy, will not be the star or even a major player this season, though the possibility remains open for a cameo role of some kind.
This shocking news comes after the other franchise stalwart, Evan Peters, might be sitting this one out, too, as he stated in an April red carpet interview.
The only other two casting additions of note currently are AHS veteran Emma Roberts and Olympic medalist skier Gus Kenworthy, who will be portraying Roberts’ character’s boyfriend.
further reading: Why Ryan Murphy is TV’s Most Prolific and Brazen Showrunner
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American Horror Story 1984 Story
Just one look at the American Horror Story Season 9’s teaser’s nighttime Camp Crystal Lake-like setting – complete with a hulking, knife-wielding killer chasing what appears to be a camp counselor – immediately evokes the Friday the 13th films, with shout-outs to the other biggies like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween likely to occur as well. However, with the series being under the purview of Ryan Murphy, don’t expect this American Horror Story Season 9 outing to be a derivative nostalgia trip, since he tends to keep a creative ace up his sleeve.
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Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.
