American Horror Story 1984 Season 9 Spoilers: Everything to Know – Premiere Date, Cast

Theorizing about the next season of American Horror Story is as much a part of the fandom as actually watching the show at this point. Even before Apocalypse ended, viewers were scouring the episodes for supposed clues, trying to guess at what they could mean for the upcoming ninth season.

As theories come together and details are announced, we’ll update this story to feature all the latest on the anticipated return of the FX anthology. So check out everything we know so far about American Horror Story Season 9 below.

It will premiere in fall 2019. Ryan Murphy and FX confirmed that Season 9 will premiere in the fall, but haven’t shared any more details. If the series follows the pattern that recent seasons have set, the premiere will most likely drop in September.

It’s called 1984 — but maybe not why you think. In the first teaser for the season, which was released in April, we learn Season 9 will officially be called 1984. However, based on the video, it doesn’t appear to be a full homage to George Orwell. Instead, the terrifying trailer is an homage to slasher movies, as a young girl runs from a knife-wielding, shaggy-haired man through the woods. The ’80s, and 1984 alone, were a great time for slashers, giving us the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.

It’s not going to be a sequel season. Although it was rumored that Season 9 would potentially be a continuation of Apocalypse, the Season 8 finale neatly wrapped up most of the lingering questions, putting this theory to rest.

American Horror Story: A Definitive Timeline

Emma Roberts is returning. Ryan Murphy confirmed Roberts‘ appearance in Season 9 when he also announced the casting of Olympic medalist Gus Kenworthy as her character’s boyfriend.

But Evan Peters is not. Although Peters has appeared in every season of the show so far, the actor recently confirmed he would be sitting this season out.

It might be about aliens. People have been clamoring for an alien or space-themed season since Asylum introduced extraterrestrials into the mix, especially given that we haven’t heard a peep about them since. And there were several things in Apocalypse that led to fans thinking Season 9 might be the season that the aliens return: In Outpost 3, The Carpenters’ “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” was memorably featured; Venable (Sarah Paulson) referred to the outpost’s servants as “the grays,” a common nickname for aliens; and Mead (Kathy Bates) sang the same song HAL famously did in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Taken together, these may hint that Season 9 will be alien-centric. And when you combine these with the multiple references to Russia in Apocalypse, some fans believe Season 9 will specifically be Ryan Murphy‘s take on the space race or even Area 51, complete with Russian spies.

It won’t be the final season. FX has already renewed American Horror Story for a 10th season, so you can rest easy: Season 9 will not be AHS‘ last, despite Murphy’s deal with Netflix.

The Coven witches will return, but not for Season 9. This is a classic case of good news-bad news. Ryan Murphy revealed in December that the Coven witches will return, but that this won’t happen in the upcoming installment, sadly. He did promise that they “have something really fun planned” for Season 9, but we know that several fans will just be biding their time until Cordelia (Paulson) and her girls return.

Previous seasons of American Horror Story are available to stream on Netflix and Hulu.

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Photo: Kurt Iswarienko/FX