To celebrate the first day of filming the ninth season of American Horror Story, executive producer Ryan Murphy shared a first look at the cast of 1984, including returning favorite Emma Roberts.
She leads a cast of familiar AHS faces -- Billie Lourd (Apocalypse, Cult), Cody Fern (Apocalypse), Leslie Grossman (Apocalypse, Cult) and John Carroll Lynch (Cult, Freak Show, Hotel) -- as well as several newcomers including Zach Villa, Pose actress Angelica Ross, Dear White People star DeRon Horton, Olympian Gus Kenworthy and Matthew Morrison, who makes his first American Horror Story appearance after leading Murphy’s hit series, Glee.
Set to Dan Hartman’s 1984 hit, “I Can Dream About You,” the videos show the cast donning classic, "amazing 80s lewks" while posing in for a camera test and in a camp bunker.
Few details about the premise and characters have been revealed, but we do know that 1984 is a slasher-themed season and that Roberts and Kenworthy will be playing a couple. And based on the Instagram videos, it will play into all the tropes of the golden age of the horror genre, which coincidentally enough died out in 1984, that produced classics like Friday the 13th, Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The setting looks very reminiscent of the Jason Vorhees franchise, which largely took place at a lakeside camp, with the cast potentially playing a team of young counselors and staff, including a well-endowed Morrison, while Lynch and Villa don more sinister, villainous looks.
While there's no doubting this cast is going to be great, notably absent are a few American Horror Story mainstays. According to Deadline, longtime star Sarah Paulson will not make much more than a cameo due to her other TV commitments, including Murphy’s Ratched on Netflix and Mrs. America for FX. Meanwhile, Evan Peters and Billy Eichner each confirmed separately that they’re sitting this season out.
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