Kaia Gerber Joins ‘American Horror Story’ Season 10
American Horror Story: 1984 wrapped up its blood-soaked, gloriously campy run with a thoroughly satisfying finale that mostly made up for that lackluster 100th episode. In an unexpectedly touching twist, Brooke (Emma Roberts) and Donna (Angelica Ross) were both the final girl, and lived to tell the strange story of everything that went down at Camp Redwood—as did AHS regular Finn Wittrock, who made his debut in the finale as Mr. Jingles, Jr.
Now, with the show renewed for a tenth season on FX, we’re devouring everything we can find about the next installment of the series. Read on for what we know about season 10, titled American Horror Story: Double Feature, from casting surprises (hello, Macaulay Culkin and Kaia Gerber!) to what to expect from that intriguing theme.
The official title of season 10 is American Horror Story: Double Feature—and will consist of two seasons and two entirely different casts, both airing in 2021.
On Friday, March 19, Murphy posted an Instagram video revealing the title of season 10. A teaser noted, “Two horrifying stories…one season. One by the sea…the other by the sand.”
But the true hint lies in the comments, where Murphy added that, in fact, AHS will premiere two seasons in 2021: “It means TWO SEASONS for the fans airing in one calendar year! So double the viewing pleasure.” Then he dropped the biggest bombshell of all: “One set by the sea (this cast already announced). A second by the sand (that cast announcement coming).”
Just…HOW?!
A few days earlier, on March 10, Murphy posted a photo of Grossman and Culkin in costume-y fur coats on a beach with the caption, “Something wicked this way comes. American Horror Story Season Ten.”
The following day he posted a photo of a creature in shadow with the caption, “Night Moves.”
Murphy’s been teasing a coastal season since May 2020, when he shared a photo of a beach with the caption, “American Horror Story. Clue.”
Another sneak preview of the season arrived in November. The post wasn’t captioned, but included a photo of a person’s open mouth and pointed teeth. A gloved hand appears in the frame, poised with a dental tool of some sort. The only other detail: Murphy's geotag, which reads Provincetown, Massachusetts. Prevailing theme guesses in the comments section include vampires, mermaids, and sirens.
The “first” season 10 cast is stacked with talent.
Ryan Murphy took to Instagram on February 26, 2020 with his official announcement of the initial season 10 cast. In a video set to Orville Peck’s “Dead of Night,” the cast's names flashed against crashing waves. Most notably, Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters will be back for the new season, after both were sorely missed in season 9. Other returning cast members set for season 10 include Kathy Bates, Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, Adina Porter, Lily Rabe, Angelica Ross, Finn Wittrock, and Frances Conroy.
Plus, Macaulay Culkin will make his American Horror Story debut, acting for the first time since appearing in an episode of Dollface in 2019. In September 2020, Paulson opened up about Culkin’s work on the new season of AHS, teasing an exciting arc for his character—and that she will be working with him—in an interview with Collider:
It’s so brilliant of Ryan to do something like that. It’s that thing where he basically says, “Oh, you think you know this actor and you know what they’re capable of? I’m gonna show you something else.” A great big swath of the people that love Macaulay Culkin love him from a particular era when he was a child. To watch him do some of the very grown-up things he’s gonna be doing—because I’ve read the first two episodes—and turning all of your expectations on its head will be thrilling for the audience and good fun. I do get to work with him, so I feel really excited about that. I can tell you that. No one knows that. You know that now.
On March 23, Murphy posted to his Instagram that model Kaia Gerber was joining the cast of the new season. “Very excited to announce that Kaia Gerber is joining the American Horror Story family,” he wrote. Gerber added to her own Instagram Stories, “very excited about this @mrrpmurphy” and “pinch me????”
Murphy previously teased that season 10 would reunite fan favorites, so it’s likely there’s room for even more with a second season 10 underway. “We’re working on an idea for season 10 that I think people will love because it’s about reuniting fan-favorite actors to come back…I’ve been quietly reaching out to various people,” Murphy told Deadline in November 2019. “Some people I haven’t reached out to yet because I was like, ‘Do I have a role for them?’ So far, everybody I reached out to said ‘Yes,’ so that’s been great.”
Pressed for more details on who is returning, Murphy teased, “the people who helped build this show into what it is, who believed in it from the beginning, have been contacted and are interested. So if you look at the iconography of the first three seasons, you can figure who I’ve gone to and who might be coming back.” Insert Monocle Emoji here.
Season 10 will premiere in 2021.
The Wrap reported on May 26, 2020 that AHS season 10 wouldn’t premiere on FX until 2021 due to filming delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In late August, Murphy announced on Instagram that the new season would go into production in October of 2020. He referred to the image of pointy teeth he posted as a “clue” to the new season’s theme.
Sarah Paulson says her character has an unexpected hair color and a “great name.”
The fan favorite didn’t reveal much about her AHS return after a season-long hiatus when she spoke to EW in February, but she did drop three very tiny hints: “The character I’m playing this year on Horror Story has some issues, let's just put it that way,” she teased, adding, “I have a hair color I’ve never had in life nor in the show. That’s what I can tell you. And I have a great name. I have a great name, which I can’t tell you.” Such intrigue…
Murphy got Culkin to join by pitching “crazy, erotic sex” with Kathy Bates.
The showrunner told E! he was a fan of Culkin’s work since Home Alone and noticed he hadn’t done much work recently. “I asked to speak to him on the phone and he said OK,” Murphy explained. “[When] I cast, I never let people read things, usually. I said, ‘OK, here’s the pitch.’ And I told them the character and I told him he has crazy, erotic sex with Kathy Bates and does other things. And he paused and he goes, ‘This sounds like the role I was born to play.’ So, he signed up right then and there.”
Do with that what you will!
Lily Rabe is playing a character unlike “anyone I’ve played on the show before.”
During an interview with Collider about her new Amazon series Tell Me Your Secrets, Rabe revealed a small tease about her AHS season 10 character and piqued fans’ interest even further. “The person I’m playing on this season is nothing like anyone I’ve played on the show before and I am having such a wonderful time with her and with my fellow actors,” she said. “I love this season. New fans of the show will love this season, but longtime fans of the show, I just can’t wait to share this season with them.”
The series is currently shooting in Provincetown, Mass.
On March 1, Boston.com confirmed a series filming through March 12 in Provincetown under the name Pilgrim was, in fact, American Horror Story season 10. Photos of Finn Wittrock filming there also circulated on March 1.
The actor told EW the same day that the new season is very different from others: “I think the suspense in this and the tight, constrained nature of the story is different than other seasons,” Wittrock revealed. “I was really interested in trying to mount the pressure in the right way, if that makes sense.” He also added that his character is the “most normal” he’s played in the anthology so far, but acknowledged, “That's not saying much.”
At least three more seasons are on the way after Season 10.
Although Murphy is kept busy with various projects at both FX and Netflix, American Horror Story will at least run through Season 13. In January 2020, Deadline confirmed that FX had ordered seasons 11, 12, and 13 of the anthology series. So if your fan-favorites aren't returning for season 10 (either installment), they could show up in a spooky future installment.
And don't rule out a season of AHS set in space. “We flirted with aliens, we flirted with space, we flirted with some things that were more interesting than others,” Murphy told Deadline in November 2019. “I think that at the heart of it, it’s always about Americana. It would be hard to do something like [space], not that I wouldn’t. The fans write in what they want, and they’re very excited about the Coven stuff and the aliens in season 2. They’ve always wanted something in space.” I'm just gonna go on record right now as saying I would be extremely here for an AHS take on the moon landing.
An anthology spinoff series is coming to FX on Hulu.
American Horror Stories, a new anthology series that will focus on a different horror story for each episode (as opposed to each season) is also currently in the works for FX on Hulu.
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