‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ Reveals New Character and Two Returning Ones

American Horror Story: Apocalypse continues shaping up to be a landmark season of the anthology horror series, and we have some exciting new casting news to share today. It’s been confirmed that an American Horror Story alum will be returning to play not one, but two roles – while the series’ most prolific actor will be debuting a new character.

EW has reported that American Horror Story alum Taissa Farmiga is not just coming back for season 8, but will reprise both her role as Violet Harmon from season 1’s “Murder House,” as well as the witch Zoe Benson in season 3’s “Coven”. The return of Violet is highly necessary, as Farmiga’s onscreen parents, Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are both returning, as well. “Murder House” ended with all three members of the Harmon family dead, while its newest member (the ghost-spawned baby Michael), started down the path of his destiny to become the Anti-Christ. Apocalypse will center around how Michael comes of age as the herald of the apocalypse, and how the witches of the coven are somehow connected to that dark event.

The other report from EW finally sheds some light on AHS icon, Sarah Paulson, who is one of the only cast members to have appeared in every season. Paulson was already slated to reprise her roles as Coven‘s new Supreme witch, Cordelia Goode, as well as Billie Dean Howard, the medium who was hired to speak to the ghosts of both Murder House (S1) and the Hotel Cortez (S5). However, EW has revealed the following about Paulson’s mysterious new character, Venable, who we recently met in a new promo that doubles as a contest ad, for the viral site “thebeginningisnear.tv“:

“Her character appears to be controlling a lottery for those who’d like to live past the end of days. “This is your chance to survive,” she says.”

More and more, the early rumors about American Horror Story: Apocalypse are looking more and more plausible. Those rumors pointed to season 8 having a big time jump to a post-apocalyptic setting – something that this Venable promo teases as a definite possibility. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see the season split, with a portion about “Demon-Baby” Michael leading up to End of Days, and then a look at the world afterward. With the way things are going, American Horror Story season 9 could end up being an all-ghost affair!

American Horror Story: Apocalypse premieres on Sept. 12 on FX.