The much-beloved FX show American Horror Story is returning for its eighth season later this year. Several of the show’s regular cast members and fan favorites will return, including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Billy Eichner, Cheyenne Jackson, and Jessica Lange, who’s coming back to the anthology series for the first time since Season 4. According to Us Weekly , there’s one star who won’t be returning – Angela Bassett.
Bassett, who starred in Seasons 3-6 of American Horror Story , confirmed that she would not be a part of the season.
“I’m not in Horror Story . I’m not, not unless they get some brilliant idea. I love Coven though,” she said while speaking at the Television Critics Association’s press tour. Coven refers to the series’ third season, Bassett’s first, in which she played legendary Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, a performance that garnered her an Emmy. Season 8, which has been dubbed AHS: Apocalypse , will be a crossover of Season 1’s Murder House and Season 3’s Coven .
Though Bassett played other characters in American Horror Story , she says her favorite has always been the Voodoo queen of New Orleans.
“She’s very special to my heart. We got to shoot in New Orleans which is beautiful, that beautiful decay of a city. It was scary; it was funny; it was risqué; it was intriguing; it was historical. You get to work with the great Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange and Sarah [Paulson], Gabby [Sidibe], just on and on and on. So it was really special, and it was the beginning of it all, beginning of me joining a family,” said Bassett.
Though Bassett will not be returning to work with the American Horror Story cast, she is returning to another show in the Ryan Murphy-verse: 9-1-1 . The show, which starts its second season on September 23, is a police procedural. Bassett plays LAPD sergeant Athena Grant. She admits that she enjoys working with Murphy (who has up to four shows running at any given time) because of his boldness and ability to create ordinary yet interesting characters.
“The world is so big and populated by so many interesting types of characters and he brings them to the fore. So I think that’s what it is [about him]. Along with these insane stories from time to time, and situations. He can’t help himself!”
AHS: Apocalypse will premier on September 12. According to Murphy, it will be set in the not-to-distant future, something the series has yet to do before. On Monday, the teaser for the season was released.
