The cast and creators of FX channels American Horror Story appeared PaleyFest on Friday and talked about Season 4’s entry AHS: Freakshow, its casting, and its basic storyline.
Season four of the FX anthology will be set in Jupiter, Fla., in 1950 and will again star Jessica Lange. This time, the Emmy winner will portray a German ex-Pat managing one of the last remaining freak shows in the country.
Returning cast members include Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Frances Conroy and Kathy Bates — who also made a surprise appearance on Friday’s panel. They’ll play performers that Lange’s character has rescued. Denis O’Hare and Emma Roberts are also in talks to return for season four of the series, which reboots itself every season with a completely new story and often features largely the same cast of repertory players. Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four) will be making his AHS debut
Chiklis will be playing the father to Peters’ character and ex-husband to Bates’ character. Showrunner Ryan Murphy also revealed that everyone on the PaleyFest stage would be returning in season four in “some capacity” including Gabourey Sidibe and Jamie Brewer. Other panelists Friday included Paulson, Roberts, Peters, Bassett, Conroy, O’Hare and Bates as well as producers Murphy,Brad Falchuk, Tim Minear and Dante DiLoreto. Star Lange — and fan favorite Lily Rabe