The new season of American Horror Story is almost upon us, and we are finally getting our first look at this year’s cast for the retro-flavored AHS:1984. The anthology series’ ninth installment features the return of longtime members of the AHS ensemble like Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, and Leslie Grossman. But there are some new faces as well, like former Glee star Matthew Morrison; Dear White People‘s DeRon Horton; Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy; and Pose‘s Angelica Ross. Ross just took her final bows on Pose with this week’s episode.
You can watch the “screen test” cast announcement down below, thanks to creator Ryan Murphy’s Instagram account (via Entertainment Weekly). The video plays along to the Dan Hartman ’80s hit “I Can Dream About You” from 1984’s Streets of Fire. If you haven’t seen it, maybe the most ’80s movie ever made.
This year’s cycle is said to be inspired by the summer camp slasher genre, which was insanely popular during the ’80s. Movies like Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp packed teenagers into shopping mall movie theaters. Horror fans still love and revere them to this day. Murphy likes to throw a twist into American Horror Story every year however. So who knows if this season is really in the 80s, or about the making of a movie set in the ’80s. All we know is that we’re living for Billie Lourd as “VHS Workout Tape Barbie”. She’s probably going to be our favorite character.
This season of AHS will be different than most; it will only feature Sarah Paulson in a very limited role. She’s going to be busy filming another show for Ryan Murphy. That series is an origin story for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’s villainous Nurse Ratchet, debuting next year on Netflix. Also sitting out AHS for the first time is Evan Peters. Peters has been in every single season since Murder House back in 2011.
