American Horror Story Returns With Ariana Grande in a Chilling New Role
American Horror Story returns for season 13, bringing back fan favorites and adding Ariana Grande to the cast.
Ryan Murphy used Halloween to drop a little treat: American Horror Story is coming back in 2026, and the cast is stacked with familiar faces plus one very splashy new one.
What Murphy just confirmed
Murphy announced on Instagram that season 13 is officially happening for 2026. No subtitle yet, no theme either, but the bench is deep. It has also been roughly two years since Delicate wrapped, so yes, the hiatus has felt long.
- Returning: Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, and Jessica Lange
- New addition: Ariana Grande
The Jessica Lange curveball
Lange is the eyebrow-raiser here because she flat-out dismissed the idea of returning not long ago. Her quote was, uh, definitive:
"Oh, Christ, no! I haven’t done it for more than ten years, twelve years. So no, I’m not doing it."
So either she had a change of heart, or Murphy loves a good fake-out. Either way, she is back for season 13. That alone will get longtime fans to show up.
Ariana Grande joins the nightmare
Ariana Grande is the unexpected (but not totally shocking) addition. She is currently riding high, with an Oscar nomination for Wicked in the books and the sequel, Wicked: For Good, hitting theaters in a few weeks and already drawing early raves. And AHS casting pop stars is hardly new territory: Lady Gaga did two cycles, and the show has previously tapped Adam Levine, Stevie Nicks, and more.
The franchise keeps churning
American Horror Story is one of FX's longest-running hits, and the anthology setup is a big reason it doesn’t calcify. The brand has ballooned enough to spawn American Horror Stories, a spinoff that has already run three seasons and cycled through multiple AHS vets, including Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Dylan McDermott, and others in new roles.
Bottom line: Season 13 lands in 2026, the cast is basically an all-star reunion with a pop powerhouse tossed in, and the title/theme is still under wraps. Works for me. You in?