Horror Obsessive
Ryan Murphy called American Horror Story season 13 the show’s “Avengers,” pulling in surviving names from a decade of interconnected seasons for one big convergence. That kind of framing usually reads as an ending. Murphy is now on record saying it isn’t one, and the distinction matters for a franchise that has spent thirteen years treating format instability as its actual identity.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy described his relationship to individual seasons as inconsistent by design: heavily involved on some, largely hands off on others, sometimes somewhere in between. That structure is unusual for a signature franchise, where the creator is typically expected to be the connective tissue holding tone together across years. Murphy’s answer suggests the opposite is true here: American Horror Story survives because it doesn’t depend on him steering every season personally.
A Franchise Built to Outlast Its Own Mythology
The detail worth sitting with is how Murphy frames season 14: not as a plot he has already locked, but as an open question, what’s the idea and who wants to be in it. For a franchise that has burned through witches, haunted hotels, cults, and now an ensemble reunion stacked with returning names, treating the next season as a blank slate instead of a sequel to season 13 is likely the reason the format hasn’t collapsed under its own mythology yet.
Brad Falchuk co-created the series with Murphy and worked on season 13 alongside him, with showrunners Ned Martel and Charlie Carver running the day-to-day production. FX boss John Landgraf has apparently given Murphy an open runway on the format’s future, telling him, in Murphy’s account, that the network will keep airing new seasons for as long as Murphy wants to keep making them. That kind of institutional patience is rare in network television and explains how a show built on constant reinvention has lasted this long without a fixed endpoint.
What Season 14 Might Look Like
“Season 13 is not the end. I’m working on season 14 as we speak in terms of, ‘What’s the idea?’ and ‘Who wants to be in it?'” Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter.
No plot, no cast, no title exists yet for season 14, and that vagueness is the point. Season 13 already carries an unusually stacked cast for a single outing: Ariana Grande, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Jessica Lange, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, Joey Pallari, and Paul Anthony Kelly. Whatever comes next does not need to top that ensemble to work. It just needs its own idea, which is the one ingredient Murphy says hasn’t been decided yet.
American Horror Story season 13 premieres on FX on Thursday, September 24. Whether it plays as a finale or a hinge point, Murphy’s comments make clear the franchise has no interest in closing the book. For horror fans who have followed this show through a decade of format resets, that is less a surprise than a confirmation of how the show has always operated: reinvent first, explain later.
Quick Takes
- Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter that American Horror Story season 13 is not the end of the franchise.
- Murphy says he is already working on season 14, without a locked concept or cast yet.
- FX boss John Landgraf has reportedly told Murphy the network will keep airing new seasons as long as he wants to make them.
- Season 13 features a cast including Ariana Grande, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, and Jessica Lange.
- American Horror Story season 13 premieres on FX on Thursday, September 24.
