American Horror Story Season 13 Brings Back Jessica Lange

Jessica Lange is not just returning to American Horror Story. She is bringing all four of her major characters back with her.

Vogue posted a new first look at American Horror Story Season 13 that reveals Lange will reprise Constance Langdon, Sister Jude, Fiona Goode, and Elsa Mars as part of what Ryan Murphy describes as a “greatest hits” season built around some of the franchise’s most memorable characters.

Season 13 premieres September 24 on FX and will also stream on Hulu.

American Horror Story Is Going Back Through Its Own History

Season 13 will bring back far more than one familiar face.

Sarah Paulson is expected to play six previous characters, while Evan Peters will return as five of his past roles. Murphy says the new season is designed around classic characters and villains from across the series rather than simply revisiting one specific season.

That distinction matters because the obvious assumption was that the heavy presence of Coven characters meant another direct continuation of that story. Murphy says that is not what Season 13 is doing.

Instead, familiar characters from different parts of the franchise will be pulled into a new story anchored by a new character played by Joey Pollari. Murphy has also teased an “ultimate evil” powerful enough to bring these returning figures together, but he is keeping the nature of that threat secret for now.

The season will run 13 episodes.

Jessica Lange’s Return Changes the Scale of Season 13

Lange has appeared briefly in the franchise since leaving as a regular after Freak Show, but Season 13 is a much larger return.

Murphy says he approached her first while developing the season because he viewed her as essential to the idea. Once Lange agreed, Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters followed. Murphy is also returning to direct American Horror Story for the first time since Freak Show.

The first-look images show the series pulling directly from its own history, including Constance Langdon, Cordelia Goode, Marie Laveau, Madison Montgomery, Twisty the Clown, Rubber Man, and other familiar faces.

New cast members will also appear, including John Waters, Alex Consani, Avantika Vandanapu, Paul Anthony Kelly, and Joey Pollari.

What We Think

The first season of American Horror Story is still the best one for both of us. Amy made it through Season 2 and then bowed out, while I stuck with the series for several seasons after that. Even when I kept watching, though, the stories seemed to get progressively more crowded, the shock moments increasingly felt like they existed because the show could get away with them rather than because the story needed them, and the endings rarely felt as satisfying as the setups.

I probably stopped caring the most around the time Jessica Lange left, although I don’t think her departure was the cause. It felt more like the show was already starting to lose some of its direction around then. What kept me watching longer than I probably otherwise would have was the cast. Lange, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, and others consistently gave these stories performances that were better than the material sometimes deserved. They could sell the emotion, the weirdness, and the melodrama, but even great performances could only do so much when the story underneath them became too messy.

That history is exactly why Season 13 is both intriguing and concerning. I have always liked the idea that all of the seasons exist in the same universe, so bringing characters from across that history together could finally do something meaningful with a connection the show has teased for years. At the same time, Jessica Lange is reportedly returning as four different characters, Sarah Paulson as six, and Evan Peters as five, which immediately raises the question of how this works without becoming even more crowded than the seasons that made me lose interest in the first place.

If every episode is constantly jumping between multiple versions of the same actors, familiar characters, old mythology, and whatever new story is supposed to hold all of this together, it could become a lot very quickly. The idea itself is interesting enough to get me curious again, but the show is going to need a much tighter story than it has sometimes delivered in the past. If all of these returning characters genuinely matter to one focused narrative, Season 13 could be a really fun way to revisit the franchise. If it becomes a parade of recognizable faces, references, and shock moments without enough substance underneath, it may end up amplifying the exact problems that made me stop watching.