Mark Your Calendars: ‘American Horror Story’ Season 10 Is Coming in August

Update, June 4th, 2021: Finally! The next season of American Horror Story has a premiere date. Season 10, titled American Horror Story: Double Feature will premiere on FX on August 25th, the show’s Instagram announced yesterday. The episodes will also be available on FX on Hulu the following day (which is perfect for cord cutters).

There’s a lot going on with this new season of AHS, and we’ve been gathering the details over the past year so that they’re all in one place. Keep reading to find out everything we know!

Update April 23rd, 2021: The American Horror Story cast for Season 10 just got bigger. Entertainment Weekly reported that Paris Jackson will join the show in a mystery role in the second part of the upcoming Double Feature. (If you feel more and more confused by American Horror Story with each announcement, just know you’re not alone.)

The late Michael Jackson’s daughter hasn’t yet shared the news, but a source told EW that simply saying she’s joining the second part of the split season “doesn’t reflect the complete picture.” TMZ originally reported the news but also hasn’t been able to confirm anything further about her role. FX reportedly did not reply to EW‘s request for comment either.

Another day, another American Horror Story mystery to unravel!

Update, March 24th, 2021: There’s a new girl in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and her name is Kaia Gerber. The model and daughter of Cindy Crawford was just announced as the latest addition to Season 10 of American Horror Story.

Creator Ryan Murphy’s announcement was brief and to the point. He simply shared a headshot of Gerber on Instagram on March 23rd and wrote, “Very excited to announce that Kaia Gerber is joining the American Horror Story family.”

Okay, so, thank you for the extensive info on who she might be playing. Nevertheless, we’re very excited to see her join in on this, as it’s her very first TV series role. She’s previously worked on film shorts and a TV movie. Gerber shared the good news in her Instagram Stories, as well as support from her friends, but no one’s talking about her role, so we guess we’ll just have to wait to see what Season 10 brings!

Update, March 22nd, 2021: Ryan Murphy just gave us more info on American Horror Story‘s 10th season, and guess what…? It’s going to be two stories in one for more AHS than ever before.

In a teaser video posted to Instagram over the weekend, Murphy shared that the new season—which includes Macaulay Culkin as a new star in the AHS universe—will *actually* be called American Horror Story: Double Feature. While we were previously under the impression that the new season was called “Pilgrim,” it looks like maybe that’s not the case. However, we know how Murphy likes to play with our emotions leading up to a new season, so who knows if either of these is truly the title.

In the teaser, the text reads, “The title of American Horror Story Season 10 is Double Feature. Two horrifying stories, one season. One by the sea, and one by the sand. More to come …” As with other teasers for the 10th season, the location is tagged as Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Update, January 20th, 2021: Well, everyone. We have a subtitle. According to an official meeting agenda made public by the Provincetown, Massachusetts, Select Board, the upcoming 10th season of American Horror Story is currently called “Pilgrim.” And how did we not see this coming?

Minutes from a January 4th Provincetown Select Board meeting show that 20th Century Fox applied to film a production titled Pilgrim, following proper COVID-19 protocol. The Board of Selectmen granted permission for 20th Century Fox to film in the area on January 11th, and shooting starts on February 1st.

According to Us Weekly, who spoke with a source close to the production, the AHS team will shoot the series for about a month, and “all of the cast, writers, and production have rented houses there,” and those houses are reportedly all close together. So, basically, it’s like spring break for the AHS cast and crew—and we’re going to need some behind-the-scenes footage from that tomfoolery, and stat.

Though the application to film did not mention any names of the cast or crew who are set to appear in the upcoming tenth installment, showrunner Ryan Murphy already spilled his own beans in February 2020. Fresh blood Macaulay Culkin joins returning cast members Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, and Sarah Paulson, along with some other familiar faces.

Now that we know AHS 10 is going with the working subtitle “Pilgrim” and being shot on the coast of Massachusetts, we’re expecting some Puritanical weirdness à la The VVitch, tense conflict between native peoples and the crude English settlers, and, of course, demon mermaids.

Update, August 31st, 2020: Slowly, but surely, details pertaining to American Horror Story Season 10 are being leaked to the public. Showrunner and creator Ryan Murphy may be the master of suspense, but not even he can keep mum about all the goodness to come in the 10th installment of the FX horror anthology series. Just this weekend, August 29th, he dropped a monster clue on Instagram that has fans’ minds spinning.

Having collected tidbits of info from Murphy and some of the cast and crew, here’s what we know so far about the forthcoming AHS Season 10, what’s going on with the release date amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and fan theories about the theme.

First thing’s first: Who the heck is in the cast?

Two words: family reunion. Although we like to see fresh faces on screen, as was the case in American Horror Story: 1984, we’re a sucker for old favorites. That’s why we almost lost our top when Sarah Paulson confirmed in January that she’d be returning to AHS (as a “central character”) in Season 10 after a not-so-brief hiatus.

And she’s not the only American Horror Story alum who will appear in the forthcoming season. Murphy released a cast list via Instagram in February:

Set to Orville Peck’s “Dead of Night,” Murphy confirmed the return of Paulson, Kathy Bates (phew), Evan Peters (phew!), Finn Wittrock, Billie Lourd, Lily Rabe, Adina Porter, Leslie Grossman, and Angelica Ross.

Yes, Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Connie Britton, and Emma Roberts are all missing from the lineup. However, in our opinion, there’s still time for that cast list to be revised.

And we’re getting a brand new AHS star: Macaulay Culkin, whose name was the second to appear after Kathy Bates. Does this mean that Culkin will be front and center this season? Perhaps. Only time will tell.

What’s the theme of AHS Season 10?

Avid American Horror Story fans know that each season revolves around a specific theme. Last season, the show was set in the ’80s and took on a campy, teen horror movie vibe. The season called Cult was centered around a cult. And Hotel took place in a hotel—you get the picture.

So, what will AHS Season 10 bring to the table? Murphy knows. However, we don’t. “We flirted with aliens, we flirted with space, we flirted with some things that were more interesting than others. I think that at the heart of it, it’s always about Americana.”

But don’t worry. There are some major clues to the theme.

Over the weekend, Murphy posted an Instagram of a mouth with what looked like vampire teeth. In case there was any doubt, in his caption he wrote, “Yes, this is a clue.”

Let’s take those sharp teeth and combine it with the prior clues in the cast list announcement.

In the cast list video Murphy posted to Instagram, the names appear over black-and-white footage of a shoreline, telling us that Season 10 will most likely take place on, or near, a beach. Murphy confirmed it with another beachy clue on May 27th.

So, teeth plus Americana plus beach plus the creep factor equals…Jaws redux? Sirens? Evil mermaids? Vampires in an abandoned New England town? Add in one more thing: In March, he posted an Instagram with the caption, “Things are beginning to wash up on shore.”

We do have one more clue from Murphy. When coronavirus delayed AHS Season 10, he told The Wrap that the season idea was “weather-dependent.”

“A lot of what what I was going to shoot was dependent on a very specific moment, it was a weather-dependent show,” Murphy said on May 5th.

A *very* specific moment? It would make sense for it to be weather-dependent on summer, given the beach scene, but the specific moment is still a head-scratcher.

Will Season 10 be the last season?

No (and thank goodness for that). When Murphy talked to Deadline back in November 2019, he wasn’t sure if Season 10 would be American Horror Story’s last. He said that 1984 was the anthology’s most-streamed season, and because of that, there was talk of ending the show on a high note with a final 10th season.

But a higher power stepped in and buried that idea. In January 2020, FX higher ups renewed the contract between the network, Murphy, and co-creator Brad Falchuck, so that AHS would last for three more seasons.

So we can rest easy until AHS Season 13 rolls around. It would be almost too perfect to end such a series on Season 13—a notoriously ill-fated number, but it’s much too early to call that shot.

Originally published February 28th, 2020.