Ryan Murphy has landed another blow against sanity and common sense with a new teaser for Season 12 of American Horror Story. In the next installment of the never-ending series, Emma Roberts is returning to the franchise for the first time in a few years, and she will star alongside none other than Kim Kardashian. The news has swept the internet into a frenzy as fans react to this bizarre casting choice, arguing whether this publicity stunt will be a fresh start for the series, or a death rattle.
The fate of American Horror Story has been up to debate for the past several years as viewership continues to decline, and featured cast members leave in droves. When it debuted in 2011, it was praised as a revolution of the horror genre, combining sex, scares, and camp to find the perfect combination for their audience. The anthology formula over the next few seasons was original and kept fans coming back to see what their favorite actors would be doing each season. As the quality of the show deteriorated, Murphy cast his attention to different projects following his Netflix deal, and AHS was left to play itself out while inventing new ways to try to engage its audience, going for gimmicks and replacing its once prized cast with influencers and nepo babies. Kim Kardashian seems to be the latest attempt at this, and while many will certainly tune in to see her performance, it won't be for the right reasons. So, why is this shocking announcement actually not so surprising in retrospect?
'American Horror Story' Has a History of Cast Members Jumping Ship
One of the things that made the early seasons of AHS so special was its stellar cast. With veteran actresses like Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates, fans could expect some powerhouse performances while also enjoying newer talent of popular actors like Evan Peters and Emma Roberts. Every season was a fresh start, with the cast returning as new characters in a whole new world, ripe with potential. During the first four seasons, the cast was pretty steady, with the major players returning each year and a few new faces joining in. However, the series quickly started hemorrhaging talent as the seasons went on.
The first to go was Jessica Lange. Her departure was a huge loss, as she was the top-billed actor and face of the series. She left after Season 4, as she felt her time on the show had come to an end. Without Lange, viewership dropped, along with the ratings. To fill the glaring space left by Lange, Ryan Murphy cast Lady Gaga in her first leading role. Even with such a huge star in the cast, it wasn't enough to keep viewership up. To her credit, Gaga did great in the role and even won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries for her performance. She had a small role in the following season, but has not returned to the franchise since.
Other key actors like Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Batesm and Angela Bassett have also failed to appear in most of the later seasons. They were replaced by new faces including Billie Lourd and Leslie Grossman, but the series just didn't have the same appeal with all of its star players absent from the drama.
Can Kim Kardashian's Star Power Save 'American Horror Story'?
Another fatal flaw of the later seasons is the quality of the writing. The first few seasons were fresh takes on classic forms of horror, exploring haunted houses, asylums tormented by aliens, and covens of witches battling for power. Each of these seasons stood alone in terms of unique stories, original ideas, and great writing. Unfortunately, there is only so far you can go before you have to start recycling ideas. Freak Show was the obvious next step in fleshing out every horror trope, but it wasn't nearly as engaging as the first three seasons. Hotel was a fresher take, even though fans and critics were divided. It still relied a bit heavily on ghosts, but introduced a new element of vampires (even though Murphy swore he would never have a vampire season). It seemed like the series might be back on track, and then Roanoke aired. The sixth season was a bizarre take on a show within a show, full of bad accents and confusing storylines. Cult was a little bit more cohesive, but fans felt it was too on the nose with its political farce in the wake of the 2016 election.
Season 8 broke the long-held anthology formula of the series by revisiting the witches. The writing was stronger than in the last few seasons, but the recycling of ideas was a bad omen for the show. Following 1984, a wholly unoriginal take on a summer camp massacre, things really took a turn for the worst. After a hiatus related to the covid-19 pandemic, AHS returned with Double Feature, another deviation from the show's formula. The season crammed two different seasons into one, resulting in a rushed narrative that ended with some of the worst writing in the series. Fans had been waiting for Murphy to revisit aliens since Season 2, and what he delivered was a laughable storyline of a secret alien military base full of ridiculous dialogue and technical gaffes. This season also brought on Cindy Crawford's daughter and model Kaia Gerber, who also appeared in the spin-off American Horror Stories, to give one of the worst performances ever seen on television.
The last episode of Season 11 brought the series to a new low in terms of viewership. When you look at all of this, it shouldn't really come as a shock that Murphy is once again using superstar casting to try to lure back his fan base. It appears that Kim is serious about delving into acting, following her role in Paw Patrol. While more news is sure to follow on what her role in the series will entail, it will certainly be interesting to see her in the horror genre. Who knows, maybe she will make a great scream queen!