It was just revealed that ‘Dynasty’ vixen Joan Collins was joining ‘American Horror Story’ for its eighth season, which is said to be subtitled ‘Radioactive’. Now the show’s creator Ryan Murphy has divulged more about her role and the setting for the new series.
The new eighth season will be set 18 months in the future from now, so not as cosmic and spacey as earlier hints implied, but Murphy says that the series will return to a more classic horror vibe, similar to earlier seasons. This past seventh season, subtitled ‘Cult’ was the first to eschew any sort of supernatural elements in favor of a more grounded theme built around the 2016 Presidential election in which Donald Trump triumphed over Hilary Clinton.
“It’s heightened. It’s not necessarily as real and grounded as the past season. We’re sort of getting back to Asylum, and Coven. That’s the tone of it.”
Collins will play the grandmother of Evan Peter’s character, whose is described as a “comedic hairstylist.” Also returning are mainstays Sarah Paulson, who has been part of the series from the beginning and Kathy Bates who joined during Season Four, ‘Coven’.
Regarding Peters’ role, Murphy revealed:
“I’ll tell you something about you, because I see how this is going. The funny thing is, we shot Cult and it was very taxing on Evan, and around Thanksgiving, I was talking to Evan and he said, ‘You know this show is so hard, it’s so difficult to do’. So your part this year is a comedic part, you are comedic and you play a hairstylist.”
It appears that Peters had issues with wearing wigs in ‘Cult’ and ‘Roanoke’.
The question of his recent $300 million deal with Netflix, Murphy made sure to clarify his dedication to ‘American Horror Story’ one of the shows upon which he built his successful television reputation.
“One of the great joys of my life is doing this show. I love this show so much. This great group of actors who come together and get to know each other, and trust each other, and go to places…I just love the ability to reach out to people who I love, love, love, and say, ‘Hey would you like to come play in our sandbox?’”
“We start shooting Season 8 around June 16,” revealed Murphy. The show usually airs around the start of October and has recently begun wrapping its run prior to Thanksgiving, because Murphy felt it was incongruous to air a horror series as the winter holidays start to creep in.
‘American Horror Story’ has already been renewed for a ninth season by FX and that is believed to be the long teased ‘Murder House’/’Coven’ crossover season.
Source: Deadline
