‘American Horror Story’ Season 6 Updates: Executive Producer Ryan Murphy Talks Big Plot Twist, Reveals Return to Season 3’s “Coven”

‘American Horror Story’ co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy talked about the show’s biggest plot twist yet. He also revealed that they would return to season 3’s storyline in the future.

Murphy admitted that the plot twist that took place on season 6’s sixth episode was one of the biggest to take place in the series. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he confirmed, “It’s the biggest plot twist we’ve ever done on the show.”

He continued, “The season was sort of written as if the season was two different shows. Something happens where half the cast is revealed to be playing and doing something absolutely different than you’ve seen in the first five. There’s a startling announcement at the end of act 3 that resets the rest of the season up until episode 10.” 

Season 6’s episode 6, entitled ‘American Horror Story: Roanoke, Chapter 6’, featured the culmination of the show’s true-crime documentary series ‘My Roanoke Nightmare’. It turned out that Sarah Paulson’s Shelby, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Matt, and Angela Bassett’s Lee were only actor re-enacting the horrific experiences of “real-life” couple Shelby and Matt Miller in their house in North Carolina.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the twist revealed that the actors were only playing parts for Cheyenne Jackson’s Sydney “Sid” Aaron James, the producer of that show. Sid then put together a new sequel season, entitled “Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell”, which would feature the re-enactment actors and their real-life counterparts to spend a couple of days together in the Roanoke murder house under 24-hour surveillance.

Paulson’s Shelby was revealed to be a British actress named Audrey Tindall while Gooding Jr.’s Matt was Dominic Banks. Evan Peters’ Edward Phillipe Mott also turned out to be an actor named Rory Monahan.

It was also most interesting to see Audrey and Rory’s “real-life” romance play out in the new part of the series. However, audiences had to bid Rory goodbye as he was the first victim to die in “Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell”.

Meanwhile, Murphy confirmed that the show would return to season 3’s “Coven” storyline in the future. He said, “At some point, we’re going to do a return to the Coven season. I don’t know what season that will be.” He also confirmed that Lady Gaga’s character was a nod to “Coven.”

He added, “The finale is the wrap-up to Roanoke but the mythology and some of the characters will continue in subsequent seasons. So it’s the ending but not the ending.”

Murphy also explained that season 7 would return to season 4’s “Freak Show.” He said, “Next year, we will be going back to some Freak Show characters, deeper histories and myhthologies. So we’re sort of still exploring season 4 in season 7.” 

‘American Horror Story’ season 6’s episode 6 was directed by Angela Bassett with a script by Ned Martel. It aired on FX on October 19, 2016. Episode 7 is scheduled to premiere on October 26, 2016 on the network.