A slightly longer trailer has arrived for American Horror Story Hotel, although it is still light on any plot details. The fifth season of the horror anthology takes up residency at a creaky hotel; we’ve seen a few glimpses of some of the kooky residents and this 30-second promo briefly shows the full main cast.
The cast of returning AHS regulars include Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Denis O’Hare, Lily Rabe, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett, Chloë Sevigny, Finn Wittrock, Wes Bentley with Mare Winningham and Matt Bomer. Ryan Murphy recently announced that the Murder House from the first season and realtor Marcy (Christine Estabrook) will be making an appearance.
Newcomers to the series this year include Naomi Campbell, Mädchen Amick, Glee star Darren Criss and Lady Gaga as the owner of the ominous Hotel Cortez. Even though we’re being spoilt with the cast, I’m still holding out a slither of hope that Jessica Lange will drop by for an episode or two. AHS Hotel marks the first season not to have Lange amongst the cast; she has expressed interest in returning for a shorter run of episodes, but we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out.
We could be in for two seasons of American Horror Story next year, producer and co-showrunner Ryan Murphy commented;
“Next year, we might do a fall American Horror Story and a spring. We have to decide. We’re doing something that we’ve never done before on the show where we’re doing two different groups of writers rooms. Some of our writers will be bouncing around, but a whole different group is coming in late August. The next thing we’re crafting up is very, very different than this. Not smaller. But just not opulent. More rogue and more dark.”
I say this as a fan of the show, I think two full 13 episode seasons in a single calendar year would be a huge mistake. At times AHS throws so much at you, the writers seem to run out of steam or just start casually reworking the mythology without a care in the world. I still think that AHS peaked with Asylum, both Coven and Freak Show had some great new cast additions, but for me they didn’t live up to their potential. If FX is indeed pursuing a double helping next year, I would love to see two batches of 6-8 episodes rather than two full seasons.
Ryan Murphy is a busy man, he has Scream Queens and American Crime Story starting soon, so adding more AHS into the mix means something will suffer. Even with the help of Brad Falchuk, running three active TV shows is a massive undertaking. Remember when Glee was good, then Murphy and Falchuk started work on AHS and Glee turned into a parody of its former self.
American Horror Story Hotel opens up for business October 7.
