Will American Horror Story season 7 reveal America’s worst nightmare?

Ryan Murphy was unusually forthcoming about the upcoming season of American Horror Story (AHS) during an appearance on Watch What Happens: Live in February, announcing that the theme of the new season will, in fact, be the most horrifying concept imaginable – the 2016 presidential election.

Murphy said that he’s pulling inspiration from the November 8, 2016 election that saw President Donald Trump pull off a surprise victory over democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday, Murphy dropped his latest teaser on Instagram, revealing the new cast member Billie Lourd with the caption,

“Winter is coming. Can’t wait for everybody to see what the incredible Lourd does this season on AHS.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUe94RqAIYr/?taken-by=mrrpmurphy

Previously, he revealed the first AHS teaser, a sketched photo of an elephant-like creature with the caption:

“American Horror Story Season 7 tease.”

And the important thing to note here is that the elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party, so brace yourselves.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTtsl9nAUOK/?taken-by=mrrpmurphy

He posted the second teaser, an anonymous person with blue hair, captioned,

“AHS Season 7: Red, white and blue clue.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUOJRiJgBiT/?taken-by=mrrpmurphy&hl=en

Upon further conversation, Murphy said,

“Well, I don’t have a title, but the season that we begin shooting in June is going to be about the election that we just went through.”

Andy Cohen seeming a bit stunned, followed up to ask whether that means Trump will be a character, but Murphy hesitated before answering “maybe”. The show runner did not provide any further details about what topics surrounding the election he may cover.


This marks a major shift for the series, which has typically centred on science fiction and supernatural themes. It’s easy to argue that delving into the election would make far more sense for another Murphy series, American Crime Story, which highlights real life events like the Orenthal James Simpson trial. But perhaps Murphy wanted to make this seem more far-fetched and less like reality. So we might still see demons, vampires and other sinister, supernatural characters.

Murphy is already getting political for season four of American Crime Story, which will focus on the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But AHS usually plays coyer about the new season’s theme, just look at the many teasers released for season 6, Roanoke, which were a masterful exercise in misdirection.

Perhaps Murphy’s revelation was fuelled by the news that there’s another mini series about the election on the way, this one from Zero Dark Thirty, writer Mark Boal and producer Megan Ellison. Other shows like The Good Fight and Mr Robot will also tackle various aspects of the election and Trump in office. Back when Trump was first elected in November, multiple show runners spoke out and confirmed they would use their series, which garnered hundreds of thousands or millions of views each week, to create a conversation among viewers.

It’s also anybody’s guess whether this season will be as directly connected to its predecessors as previous ones have been since Murphy has been firm in the notion that they’re all connected. However, there’s a difference between making a reference in passing and prominently featuring a character from a previous season, like Freak Show did with Pepper or Roanoke with Lana Winters.

Photo: IMDb

Photo: IMDb

It has already been confirmed that American Horror Story veterans Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters will be returning along with new additions Lourd and Billy Eichner for the next season, which, as Murphy revealed, will begin shooting in June.

Photo: IMDb

AHS season 7 premieres this fall and the first episode surrounds election night. FX network renewed the show through season 9 in January.