October just won’t be the same without American Horror Story, but fear not. The tenth season is expected to begin filming this October, with an airdate sometime in 2021. Showrunner Ryan Murphy posted the news on Instagram alongside a teaser for the new season – which featured a set of teeth. Previous clues have included hands crawling out of the sea. Every season of the show so far has been announced ahead of time, bar season six, which featured several different options as a teaser trailer – with fans unsure of which one they’d eventually get by the time the premiere aired. So, what do the clues indicate that we could expect for the tenth season?
Real-Life People
Could the clues be leading us to a key person from history? Perhaps a murderous dentist? For instance, American Glennon Engleman who became known as the ‘killer dentist’ after moonlighting from his St Louis dentistry as a hitman. The show doesn’t hide away from real-life figures – as the serial killer dinner in the Hotel Cortez showed us in Season Five.
Season One – before the anthology series was properly formulated, centered around the ‘murder house’ and incorporated the true story of The Black Dahlia into the show’s mythology. The high-profile murder is common knowledge enough to draw attention, but obscure enough for the show to add its own flair.
Season Three took us to Louisiana and introduced Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen of New Orleans. Despite dying in 1881, the show used artistic license to have Laveau exist in the present day to depict a centuries-old battle between the witches of Miss Robichaux’s Academy and the voodoo practitioners.
Real-Life Events
Could the hands in the sea be alluding to something that happened in real life? Plenty of ships have vanished without a trace. The Mary Celeste, for example, was found floating without any crew.
Season Seven focused around the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential Election – the results of which were scary for statistically half the voting population of the States. The show used the tension that developed around the time of the election to add momentum to the show. This fear is possibly the most real – and could be duplicated for the next election.
It’s also the most accessible for many people. As the list of sports betting providers in Pennsylvania – one of the most contested states, illustrates, many sites also offer the opportunity to bet on American politics. The opportunity to ‘get involved’ in presidential races and campaigns evokes a tension that was utilized in the seventh series of the show, Cult. The activity itself is proving more popular with every term, especially since many betting providers across the US are offering close odds between both candidates at the moment.
Season Six concentrated on the Roanoke colony who mysteriously disappeared. In 1590, 117 people vanished from the Californian colony. The word ‘Croatoan’ was left carved in a fencepost. The series not only adapted what may have happened at Roanoke, but allowed it to influence the characters in the present day, in one of the more focused seasons.
The cast is already in place – with Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin joining the returning Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters, as well as series mainstays Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd, Finn Wittrock, Lily Rabe, Adina Porter, Angelica Ross, and Leslie Grossman. The clues don’t add up to much on their own – and the show has thrown us misdirects before. So, it’s a case of being patient and hoping Murphy uses the time to deliver a killer show for its tenth anniversary.
