The slow unveiling of Ryan Myrphy’s “American Horror Story: Freak Show” has been one of multiple short teasers and much speculation. Finally, however, all the main characters have been named.
In Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Preview, a slew of new details were revealed about Season 4 of the anthology series. Along with what we’ve heard over the past several months, here’s everything we know so far about “Freak Show” — and if you don’t want it spoiled, look away now!
“Freak Show” is darker than “Coven”
Set in Jupiter, Florida, in 1952, Season 4 centers on one of the last remaining American freak shows in the country. At the Television Critics Academy earlier this year, FX CEO John Landgraf described “Freak Show” as a mix between the camp of “Coven” and the darkness of “Asylum.” In EW’s Fall Preview issue, co-star Sarah Paulson said this season is about “being a forgotten soul that’s been cast aside in the world. Everybody feels like that at some point in their lives.”
Jessica Lange plays Elsa Mars
Elsa is a former German cabaret star — and yes, we will get flashbacks to her cabaret days in the ’30s — who runs the freak show. Lange told EW that her character, while “very manipulative,” also “loves her performers.” “She truly cares for them in her own selfish, narcissistic way. It’s not just exploitation,” said Lange. Also, Elsa looks killer in a tent-patterned dress, as the first trailer proved.
Sarah Paulson plays Bette and Dot
The only thing better than one Sarah Paulson is two Sarah Paulsons, and with “Freak Show” we get Bette and Dot.
Kathy Bates plays Ethel
Bates returns for her second season of “AHS” as Ethel, the bearded woman and “Elsa’s right hand woman,” according to Murphy. The creator also said that Ethel was a circus star in the ’20s and ’30s and became a drunk after she had a baby. “Elsa saved her,” Murphy said. We’ll also get a flashback of young Ethel.
Evan Peters plays Jimmy
Jimmy is Ethel’s son, born with “lobster-like hands.” He’s said to be the male leader of Elsa’s troupe until his father, Dell Toledo, arrives to fight for power.
Emma Roberts and Denis O’Hare play con artists
As a pair of con artists, we really hope nothing creepy happens between the two this season. (Remember when Spalding kept Madison’s body in a trunk? Ew.)
Michael Chiklis plays Dell Toledo
The strong man, Dell Toledo, is the Ethel’s ex-husband and Jimmy’s father. Dell is married to Desiree Dupree (Angela Bassett), and he’s also “on the run from the law.”
Patti LaBelle appears in four episodes
The music legend (this year’s Patti LuPone?) will have a four-episode arc this season as mother to Gabourey Sidibe’s character. According to TV Line, her mission will be to uncover the mystery of the clown killer.
Gabourey Sidibe plays a socialite
According to EW, her character will return home to the small Florida town when her mother (LaBelle) goes missing.
Angela Bassett plays Desiree Dupree
Dell’s new wife, Desiree is also a performer with three breasts, which requires the actress to wear a prosthetic piece across her chest.
John Carroll Lynch plays Twisty the Clown
We’ve already been scared to our core with that terrifying teaser, so it’s pretty certain that Lynch’s evil, murderous clown will be a nightmare. Murphy told EW that Twisty wears a mask on part of his face, but “there’s a point in the season where takes the mask off and when you see what’s under you will faint in terror.” Woah.
Wes Bentley plays Edward Mordrake
“The Hunger Games” actor will make an appearance in the two-part Halloween episode as Edward Mordrake, the subject of a “famous horror myth [about] a man with two faces.”
Pepper returns
Naomi Grossman’s fan-favorite character Pepper, the microcephalic woman from “Asylum,” is officially returning for “Freak Show.” Murphy said that Season 4 “is sort of like what happened to Pepper before she went to the asylum.” Hopefully we’ll see the incident that got her stuck in Briarcliff.
The cast includes the “world’s smallest woman”
Jyoti Amge, a 20-year-old Indian woman, is the shortest woman in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
Frances Conroy and Finn Wittrock play mother and son
“AHS” staple Frances Conroy will return as a wealthy woman; newcomer Finn Wittrock (from Murphy’s “The Normal Heart”) will play her son who wants to join the freak show.
“American Horror Story: Freak Show” premieres on Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET on FX.