Here’s Everything We Know (and Still Don’t) About American Horror Story: 1984

Ryan Murphy dropped the first trailer for the upcoming American Horror Story: 1984 on Monday, giving eager fans their first look at the ninth installment of the popular horror anthology series featuring the season’s cast. As expected, the trailer revealed the season to be a take on one of the most popular genres within horror — the slasher film — but it also helped narrow down what we know about the season, the first since the American Horror Story universe got a “reboot” of sorts.

In the trailer, which you can check out above, we see how some of the season’s core cast — specifically Emma Roberts, Cody Fern, Billie Lourd, and Gus Kenworthy — make their way to Camp Redwood. We also see that the terror, or at least part of it, will center around an escaped maniac Mister Jingles, who has broken out of a mental institution and is set to wreak havoc on the camp. Beyond that, though, the trailer answers some major questions while also leaving a few unanswered. With just a few weeks left before the premiere, here’s everything we know about American Horror Story: 1984 as well as a few questions we still have about the upcoming season — and the whole American Horror Story universe.

It really is set in the 1980s

An early fan theory about 1984 made the bold suggestion that the season wouldn’t be set in 1984 at all but would be a show-within-a-show. When the casting announcement video came out in July, fans noticed the actor’s marks clearly visible in the shots. It led to some speculation that the cast would be filming a horror movie set in the 1980s as opposed to being in the decade itself. While that is still theoretically possible, the trailer seems to pretty strongly indicate that we really are going back to 1984 this time around.

Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson really aren’t returning

The casting video drove home for fans that series stars Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson who have appeared in nearly every other season of the series weren’t returning for 1984, but we have to admit, we were kind of holding out hope they might appear as a surprise in the first trailer. Alas, that was not the case.  Peters and Paulson really aren’t coming back for 1984.  Fortunately, the season is giving us Pose star Angelica Ross’s American Horror Story debut so we’re excited for that.

No dystopian setting here

Another popular fan theory about 1984 has been that the season would have less a slasher theme and more of a dystopian one. The title, 1984, is also the title of George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel which explores themes of government overreach, totalitarianism, repressive regimentation of society, and more all set in a world (then an imagined future) where the world was locked in perpetual war as citizens existed under omnipresent government surveillance (the Thought Police) and were kept in line with the use of propaganda among other measures. The impact of the 1984 novel was and is so significant it remains a form or shorthand for totalitarianism and authoritarianism.

The ideas of 1984 have also come more to the surface in recent years following the election of Donald Trump as president with his use of the term “fake news” prompting some to make comparisons to the concepts of doublethink in the novel. The book even got a bump in sales in 2017 after Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to Trump, used the term “alternative facts” during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, terminology that some felt was eerily similar to the book. As American Horror Story doesn’t shy away from some political commentary in its seasons, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if 1984 draws on some of these elements within the season. However, the trailer seems to debunk that fan theory entirely.

How does this fit into the American Horror Story timeline?

Last season, Apocalypse literally reset the American Horror Story timeline when Mallory (Billie Lourd) went back in time using Tempus Infinitum, a rare magical ability to manipulate the flow of time, to kill Michael Langdon as young man before he could bring about the end of the world. Doing so reset the timeline to roughly 2015. However, with 1984 taking place prior to Mallory’s timeline reset, it would make sense that it fits into a pre-Apocalypse world, something that could allow for the season to have some ties to earlier installments of the series. However…

Apocalypse “cleared the slate” for American Horror Story

…just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it is likely. According to FX Networks and FX Productions CEO John Landgraf explained at the Television Critics Association press tour earlier this month that there was such a cast shakeup for 1984 because the series needed a clean slate after Apocalypse.

“Remember, he did something really interesting, which is he decided to weave multiple different cycles through the eight seasons, and so it was the biggest cast ever,” Landgraf said. “You had actors that were playing 2-3 different characters. You had to bring back all the cast from prior seasons. It was a monster in terms of the size of the cast, cost of that cast. You can’t do that all the time.”

He went on to explain that that meant in Season 9, series co-creator Ryan Murphy had to refresh.

“Part of what he needed to do, which is what he did, was clean the slate, start over.”

When the series returns

Here’s one thing we know for sure about American Horror Story: 1984: the series premieres on Wednesday, September 18th at 10pm ET on FX.

Are you excited for American Horror Story: 1984? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.