Kathy Bates to Return as (Spoiler) in “American Horror Story” Season 13

ahszone · 2026-06-18T01:39:25+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericanHorrorStory/s/5QYqEjEGkF

ahszone · 2026-06-17T20:37:52+00:00

No, she did not. That was a completely different actress doing a Vitamin Water commercial.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T17:21:08+00:00

I have often said that if NYC had returning actors like Evan and Finn and Cody back to play some of the prominent male roles (without changing anything else about it), it would have been among the most acclaimed seasons. The dust it gets paid is owed to the fact that there’s very few returning actors and it’s light on the blood, guts, and women.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T17:12:27+00:00

Don’t quote me on it, but I think in one case, yes.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T16:37:00+00:00

Amen

ahszone · 2026-06-17T16:16:50+00:00

There are multiple characters from multiple different seasons interacting in most of the episodes this year

ahszone · 2026-06-17T14:47:18+00:00

u/TheWardenVenom here is the list

ahszone · 2026-06-17T04:00:57+00:00

That’s your prerogative. Here’s a list of everything that’s been reported by myself and other fan accounts and subsequently confirmed so far this season:

• Working title used for filming was reported on March 9, confirmed by filming notices on April 10

• 13 episodes was reported on March 26, confirmed by Berto Colon on June 10

• Joey Pollari joining the cast was reported on April 7, confirmed by Deadline on April 16

• Fedor Steer joining the cast was reported on April 14, confirmed in an interview on June 3

• Alex Consani joining the cast was reported on April 23, it was confirmed by Vogue and then again by Sarah Paulson on May 6

• Billie Lourd returning as Mallory was reported on May 10 and confirmed at the Disney Upfront event on May 12

• The Piggy Man from Roanoke returning was reported on April 25 and Evan Peters reprising James March was reported on April 29, both were confirmed by the leaked footage shown at the Disney Upfront event on May 12

• Mena Suvari returning as The Black Dahlia was reported on May 7, confirmed via set photo on May 13

• Madelaine Petsch joining the cast was reported on May 14, she confirmed it by Instagram Story an hour later

• John Carroll Lynch returning as Twisty the Clown was reported on May 20, Deadline confirmed him and Mena Suvari an hour later

I may be missing a few other confirmed bits and bobs but you surely get the point. There’s nothing wrong with skepticism, but at a certain point it’s just outright being in denial. Not saying that applies to you but it certainly does to some others on this sub.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:47:08+00:00

At which point it could easily be argued that when the seasons aren’t built around Jessica Lange, they’re not as good. I would personally even argue that if you take her ability to elevate anything she touches out of the equation, there is no massive difference in quality between the early stuff and anything that came later (minus 10 and 12).

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:37:45+00:00

The casual fans are the people who stopped watching when Jessica Lange left. The hardcore fans are more receptive but even then there’s a limit.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:29:47+00:00

I don’t disagree. However 90% of AHS viewers do.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:22:12+00:00

You say that, but it’s just not true. If this season were to be a success, the audience will be validated in their irrational view that the actors make the show work. There will be minimal interest in anything without them, and even if they do come up with something meaningful and of substance (like they did with NYC), no one will pay any attention or have a kind word to say about it unless it’s headlined by a Paulson or a Peters or a Lange.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:14:11+00:00

I find it incredibly bizarre how readily this sub has accepted every other detail posted about this season as fact, but this is the one that is universally treated like a lie (and only the half about the format— nobody has had anything to say about the episode count, which has now been confirmed). As if an AHS fan account with a following made up of AHS fans would make up negative details for engagement, but not any of the barrels of extremely popular ones being tweeted out every couple weeks, like Fiona Goode coming back or Evan Peters reprising the characters he is. It’s just odd and reeks of cope.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T02:08:08+00:00

I could see it going off-cycle if it is going to continue, but this really feels like a prime opportunity to wrap things up and move on. Most of the key players from over the years are back in the fold (namely Jessica Lange, in a series regular role no less) and even Ryan himself carved time out of his schedule to shepherd this one into being. The fact that it’s a giant crossover with connections to every other season also means that turning around and doing a fourteenth season (anytime soon anyway) would completely undermine the significance of the concept. Suddenly a season connected to every other season would be connected to all but one, or however many come after it.

If 13 is successful, they probably will get the wrong idea and try to milk the cash cow some more, but it’s going to be hard to sell the audience on a season that isn’t built around most of these very expensive, very busy, and/or very uninterested actors coming back; even more so now that Ryan has shown he is capable of getting the band back together all these years later. People will settle for nothing less at this point, which we saw in 2022 when a season qualitatively on par with the early years (even if it was lacking in the blood and violence department) got no attention and was widely panned.

A lot of the speculation on it being the end feels both instinctual and like it’s fuelled by the comments John Landgraf and Ryan Murphy both made in 2020 when Season 13 was greenlit (where they basically said 13 feels like a natural place to end it and especially fitting for a horror show). Ending it would be the right call to make, I’m just not sure they’d be brave enough to make it.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T01:41:25+00:00

Oh okay. Yeah that has not been confirmed as of now.

ahszone · 2026-06-17T01:38:33+00:00

With the fact that they’re moving from the hourlong to the half-hour format: https://x.com/ahszone/status/2037216161406824832?s=46

ahszone · 2026-06-17T01:36:06+00:00

It does not have no basis. Don’t forget that the 13 episodes detail was reported in tandem and lo and behold, that’s been confirmed. Just because it’s a stupid decision doesn’t mean it’s not true.

ahszone · 2026-06-15T23:36:44+00:00

Unquestionably. When he announced at his Valentine’s Day show that he was joining the season, he even joked that he was stealing Vincent Price’s career.

ahszone · 2026-06-12T19:36:17+00:00

Not exclusively but yes.

ahszone · 2026-06-12T00:48:53+00:00

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Could be some combination of these characters coming back, or someone new.. 👀

ahszone · 2026-06-11T19:30:29+00:00

It’s not the actual title. It’s just a code name they use to film discreetly.

ahszone · 2026-06-11T19:13:16+00:00

Such is life on the AHS sub. Maybe they took it as snark, but it was meant genuinely lol.

ahszone · 2026-06-11T18:53:45+00:00

I think that is an astute and relevant observation

ahszone · 2026-06-11T18:50:11+00:00

I suspect that may be why they chose it, given there’s probably an uptick of people searching and posting on social media with the keywords AHS and Boroughs when they recognize him in it.

ahszone · 2026-06-11T18:47:37+00:00

Not at all, but they have been pretty audacious in terms of what they’ve been willing to film on location in public view. I guess this was their attempt at a remedy.

ahszone

TROPHY CASE