Two “American Horror Story” veterans will be directing episodes in the upcoming “Apocalypse” subtitled season.
Sarah Paulson will direct the sixth episode of the season, which will see the return of Jessica Lange, she announced at the Television Critics Assn. press tour panel for the show Friday. Evan Peters will also direct an episode this season, but production has not determined which one just yet.
“The story begins with the end of the world and then our world begins,” executive producer Alexis Martin Woodall said of “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.”
Adding that the story for the eighth installment of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series “starts in the real world [in a] very tangible and familiar [place],” Woodall noted that in launching a tale about the apocalypse, what becomes important is “What’s the fantasy of what happens next?”
“If we’re still here, the world didn’t totally end,” she said.
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“American Horror Story: Apocalypse” is the murder house and “Coven” crossover season, which means characters from both will appear. Paulson shared that she will actually be playing three characters this season, including psychic Billie Dean Howard and Supreme witch Cordelia Foxx.
“Cordelia is the Supreme for now. At the beginning of our story, that is the title she still holds. I don’t know how long that is going to last,” she admitted.
But given that “it’s the apocalypse in the truest sense of the word,” Paulson continues, the Cordelia audiences will meet in this season is not having as much fun as in the past.
“Enjoyment is a not possible at his particular juncture at the story. She’s not running around snorting cocaine like her mother and throwing young riches against the wall, though she may like to be doing that,” she said.
Emma Roberts is playing “Coven’s” Madison Montgomery again this season, and she noted that she was recently asked to “be bitchier,” which is not a direction she thought was possible as that character.
Returning “American Horror Story” actors such as Kathy Bates, Adina Porter, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman and Peters are back this season, as well, but all in new roles. Only allowed to share their character names, Bates revealed she is playing Ms. Meade, Porter is Dina Stevens, Lourd is “Mallory — just Mallory,” Grossman is Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt and Peters, who was not in attendance, is playing a hairdresser.
“Ryan did invite all of the witches to return,” Woodall said. But who else may appear still remains to be seen as no additional casting was announced on the panel.
Additionally, the murder house characters of Tate and Vivienne’s son Michael is now grown up (and played by Cody Fern), but all Woodall would say about him is “the devil doesn’t really do anything good.”
“There is a specific mystery to the show that is better unfolded — it is better experienced,” she said. “This season is different, and it’s better experienced.”
