It’s lucky Season 13 for American Horror Story fans. The long-running horror anthology will return to one of its most-beloved stories: Coven. The new season won’t premiere until Halloween, but showrunner Ryan Murphy shared an early preview this week on Instagram, confirming the return not just of the witchy story but of one of AHS’ most iconic stars: Jessica Lange.
Lange hasn’t appeared since her cameo in American Horror Story season 8, “Apocalypse,” where she reprised her season 1 character. But Lange was once AHS mainstay who starred in the show’s first four seasons. She’s also a fan favorite and unquestionably played a role in the show’s ongoing popularity. Many fans still cite Coven as AHS’s best season.
The original Coven story takes place 300 years after the Salem Witch Trials, with a fresh series of violent attacks on witches serving as the kick-off for the thirteen-episode season. Lange portrayed Goode, a vicious matriarch increasingly at odds with her coven. After a lengthy absence from the coven’s home base in New Orleans, Goode returns to town with a vengeance, ready to reign down Hell on the heads of her enemies. This awakens old rivalries with other power players in town, including Angela Bassett as the righteously vengeful Marie Laveau and Kathy Bates as the viciously racist serial murderer Delphine LaLaurie.
Amidst all this, Goode’s daughter Cordelia attempts to teach young witches at the Academy she has been left to oversee by her mother. Resentful of being stuck in the position, Cordelia nonetheless attempts to instill caution in the next generation of witches. By the end of this run, Cordelia has undergone a whole trajectory by facing off against her mother and emerged as the Coven’s new Supreme, boldly revealing the existence of witches to the world media.
Major criticisms of American Horror Story include tonal inconsistency and an overreliance on gimmicks and shock value. Conversely, Coven blends more serious subject matter with the over-the-top camp values of Murphy’s best work. It’s also regularly regarded as the series’ most quotable season, and icy one-liners from Lange’s Fiona Goode, such as, “When witches don’t fight, we burn,” and, “Don’t make me drop a house on you,” helped cement that legacy. That Stevie Nicks cameo helped, too.
The great strength ofAmerican Horror Storyhas always been its often-recurring cast of charismatic character stars. Coven featured a number of popular AHS cast members, and Season 13 looks to be no different. The actors mentioned above are set to be joined by other beloved frequent flyers, including Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, and Leslie Grossman.
American Horror Story season 13 premieres Oct. 31 on FX.