Over the course of eight seasons, the American Horror Story [1] franchise has told a huge array of stories, but the one thing that's always stayed constant has been a rotating cast of regular players. Series creator Ryan Murphy has tended to cast the same actors [2] across the board to play new characters in each season, giving these actors steady gigs without having them play the same characters for years on end. As news starts to trickle out [3] about the ninth season, American Horror Story [4]: 1984, at least one regular player [5] will be absent: Evan Peters [6]. And, as it turns out, the new season might be missing another longtime star in Sarah Paulson.
On July 8, Variety reported [7] that sources revealed the Emmy-nominated actress "will not appear in a significant role" in the ninth season, despite having roles in all eight of the preceding seasons of the hit series. So far, 20th Century Fox Television and Paulson's reps have declined to comment.
If she does indeed decide not to return, the career move would make sense. Paulson is currently filming the FX series Mrs. America as well as Murphy's upcoming Netflix drama Ratched (the latter of which has already received a two-season pick-up). She's also due to appear in the film Run, which is set to arrive in 2020.
On top of her other commitments, Paulson has been hinting she might skip season nine for a while. In April, she told SyFy that she's not even sure if she'll be returning [9].
"I don't really know the answer to that," she said. "All I can say is I know the least about this season upcoming that I've known about any season . . . Usually, I have more information at this point, and I'm bugging Ryan with questions. Right now, I don't have a lot."
Most recently in the AHS universe, Paulson reprised not one but two [10] of her past AHS roles in the crossover season Apocalypse: her season one role as Billie Dean Howard and season three's Cordelia Foxx. There aren't many details about 1984 [11] yet, but if she does make a surprise return, we're sure she'll have yet another indelible character to add to the list!