After sitting out last season, Kathy Bates is getting back in the American Horror Story game.
The Oscar-winning actress will co-star in the forthcoming season of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. She joins Murphy’s leading duo Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters.
Bates joined Murphy’s series in its third cycle, appearing consistently in the Coven, Freak Show, Hotel and Roanoke installments. During last season’s Cult, however, she instead launched her own show on Netflix, the pot comedy Disjointed from Chuck Lorre.
Netflix opted not to renew Disjointed for a second season, leaving Bates free to return to AHS.
The eighth season of the horror anthology will be set in the future, a first for Murphy. The co-creator and showrunner, who traditionally keeps details surrounding the upcoming season close to the vest, has only said that his latest installment will take place in the next 10 to 20 years: “It’s set in the future, but not the theme. The near-distant future. It’s a projection story.”
Murphy also confirmed the next season will not be the anticipated Murder House–Coven crossover, which is likely to happen in season nine.
Casting for the next season is likely underway. The show typically launches in the fall and has been renewed through 2019.
When speaking to THR at the recent FX All-Star party in New York, repeat AHS star Adina Porter said she hasn’t yet gotten the anticipated call from Murphy about playing a role in season eight.
“I hope so. I pray so. But you never know,” the actress, who co-starred in Roanoke and Cult and had a brief appearance in the first season’s Murder House, said about returning. “Last season, it was maybe a month before shooting that I found out. So I think they are creating and we don’t know which way the creative mind is going to go, and how I do fit in or don’t fit in. So, I wait for that call.”
EW was first to report the Bates news.
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