As Oscar Wilde famously once wrote, “Life imitates Art.”  Many people, however, don’t realize that there is more to this quote from Wilde’s 1889 essay ‘The Decay of Lying’ – the full sentence is actually “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.”  In pop culture, the reverse may be true, as many films, TV shows, and books pull their inspiration directly from real-life events.

Ryan Murphy, the producer of the ‘American Horror Story’ TV anthology series, is taking his art into the imitation of very recent life.  He has revealed that the seventh season of the show will find its genesis directly in the 2016 US Presidential Election, which saw businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a battle that was hotly-contested and still debated months later.

While promoting his new anthology-style TV series ‘Feud,’ also airing on the FX Network as ‘American Horror Story’ does, Murphy said:

“I don’t have a title [yet], but the [next] season that we begin shooting in June is going to be about the election that we just went through, so I think that will be interesting for a lot of people.”

When asked by interviewer Andy Cohen if there will be a Trump-type figure in the show, Murphy replied with a flat “maybe” – which is pretty much as good as a “yes,” since it would be awfully  hard to have an entire season-long story revolving around an election without utilizing the person who won said election, am I right?

In previous interviews, Murphy has explicitly mentioned that season 7 will also be “going back to some ‘Freak Show’ characters – deeper histories and mythologies.”  In addition, the ‘American Horror Story’ Twitter account posted a very short teaser for that many fans interpreted as being for the seventh season; the 7-second video features waves in the ocean, intercut with screaming and quick flashes of a ‘Blair Witch’ type of wooded scene.  Check it out:

Since 24 different promo videos were created for season 6 with the design to purposely mislead fans, it remains to be seen if this video will actually come into play at all for the new season’s theme.

No official word has come yet from FX on the season 7 premiere date, but expect FX to follow its historical pattern and debut the new season sometime this Fall.

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Tony Schaab wonders who would win in an epic, Gladiator-style fight between the Grumpy Cat and the “This is Fine” Dog – an animal-heavy meme battle for the ages!  A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Facebook and Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.