As the deliciously twisted American Horror Story: Coven enters its endgame with just two episodes left, showrunner Ryan Murphy is already teasing where his Emmy-winning horror anthology series will travel in its fourth season, which was officially ordered by FX last November. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Murphy revealed that the next, currently untitled series will take place in the year 1950.
The show has already explored a haunted house in 2011 Los Angeles (in the first season, retroactively subtitled Murder House), a 1946 Massachusetts mental institution (Asylum) and modern-day New Orleans (Coven), with many extensive flashbacks to other time periods, so jumping around in time is certainly nothing new for Murphy and co.
The showrunner also dropped the following tease as to what viewers can expect from the fourth season of American Horror Story:
If you look historically what happened in the year 1950, there’s some more clues in that year. It’s a period piece. We try and do the opposite of what we’ve done before. Jessica Lange has already started practicing her German accent so I’m very excited!
Lange, who will leave American Horror Story after the fourth season, has been one of the few actors to appear in every season.
1950 was a year filled with political activity, though the Second Red Scare and escalating Cold War are the two huge American events that immediately come to mind. Might American Horror Story‘s fourth season be taking some lessons from fellow FX drama The Americans? That show follows two KGB spies hiding in plain view as an American couple in 1980s Washington, D.C.
At this point, everything we could say is speculation, but an American Horror Story that explores anti-Communism could be very interesting. After all, in 1950, a nationwide panic ensued after Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that the U.S. State Department contained 205 Communists. If the show does take that angle and explore the hysteria around Communist witch hunts at the time, the name possibilities are endless. Can I suggest American Horror Story: Purge?
What do you think a 1950-set American Horror Story should focus on? And if you have an idea in mind, how about some name possibilities? Let us know in the comments section!
