Rumors of American Horror Story focusing on the Slender Man in season six may have been greatly exaggerated, as it turns out, however, what we do know now is that the upcoming season will involve children in one way or another. During a PaleyFest panel for the horror anthology series Sunday night, creator Ryan Murphy admitted that he has the theme narrowed down to two different ideas, both of which include “elements of children.”
“The interesting thing about this season is we’ve been working on two ideas at once, which we’ve never done,” he said. “So I don’t want to say what it maybe is…. Both things that we’re writing right now – we haven’t declared a winner – will have a different form, so we’re excited about that. We’ll talk about it soon, but we haven’t landed on it yet.”
“If you look at horror tropes, the innocence of children, that sort of wide-eyed entryway into some world is always very dramatic and satisfying,” he explained.
As for which familiar faces we might see returning next season, so far only Lady Gaga has confirmed in an impromptu radio interview. But it looks safe to say that we can also expect cast members Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Finn Wittrock, Angela Bassett, Denis O’Hare, Cheyenne Jackson, Wes Bentley, and Matt Bomer — who all appeared onstage at the event — to return, according to Murphy.
“I will tell you that every darling person up here that wants to come back can come back,” said Murphy.
Noticeably absent from the panel was American Horror staple Evan Peters, but after five seasons with a prominent role, it would be news at this point if he weren’t coming back. In the meantime, we’ve been given enough to at least start loosely speculating… Let’s just really hope it doesn’t involve Slender Man.
