American Horror Story: Freak Show will be darker than its predecessor, Coven.
FX CEO John Landgraf detailed the new season at the Television Critics Association tour earlier this week. Freak Show takes place in Jupiter, Fla. in 1950, and stars returning cast member Jessica Lange as the manager of one of the last remaining carnival freak shows in the United States.
"Some years it's going to be big and bright and brash and campy the way Coven is," Landgraf shared. "Other years it's going to be dark and brooding like Asylum was. I guess I would put Freak Show halfway in between the two. It's not quite as brooding and formal and Hitchcockian as Asylum, it's got a little bit more humor and a little bit more camp, but it's got a brooding period feel to it also."
"[The season is] going to have a really different look from a design and cinematography standpoint than any of the previous incarnations," he continued. "The characters are really distinctive, really original, some are really strange, but I think really compelling. I love what I've read so far."
Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Francis Conroy, Emma Roberts, Jamie Brewer, Denis O'Hare, Gabourey Sidibe and Evan Peters will return with Lange for season four. The series veterans will be joined by Michael Chiklis and possibly Neil Patrick Harris.
American Horror Story: Freak Show premieres on FX in October.