American Horror Story Season 13 Shouldn't Repeat This Concerning Stranger Things Trend

American Horror Story has always brought horror tropes to life in a fresh way with a talented and compelling cast. When season 1, Murder House, was released in 2011, fans were introduced to a strange and unsettling group of characters, from the family moving into a haunted old mansion to eerie Tate Langdon (Evan Peters). Throughout 12 seasons, Ryan Murphy’s anthology series brought ghosts, vampires, a cult leader, a serial killer, a killer clown, and witches to the small screen. But, while Murphy has said he’s working on American Horror Story season 13 with Sarah Paulson, there are no details about the upcoming season. The recent announcement about Monster season 4 is disappointing for fans who want to see more from AHS.

Now that it’s been over a year since the dark pregnancy story of season 12, Delicate, ended, fans would be more than thrilled to see the next season. But, at the time of this writing, there is no planned release date.

American Horror Story Season 13 Shouldn’t Repeat This Concerning Stranger Things Trend

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American Horror Story Season 13 Needs To Be More Like Ryan Murphy’s Other Shows

American Horror Story season 13 is coming at some point, and fans of Ryan Murphy’s eerie anthology look forward to it.

There Could Be A Huge Gap Between American Horror Story Season 12 And American Horror Story Season 13, Which Is Worrying

Until now, American Horror Story has had a fairly consistent release schedule. After season 1’s 2011 release, seasons 2 through 9 came out every year. Then, while there was no new season in 2020, season 10, Double Feature, was released in 2021, followed by season 11 NYC in 2022. Season 12, Delicate, had a two-part release schedule in 2023 and 2024 with a big, fun cliffhanger, which Stephen King praised in a tweet. But, now American Horror Story season 13 isn’t coming out this year, and it seems unlikely that it will be released in 2026. That could mean a long wait for fans.

While the fast-paced and moving Stranger Things season 5 teaser is great, fans would be much less frustrated if the final season had been released earlier. In this case, the delay was partly caused by the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike, and there’s no doubt that the Hawkins-set show is a huge production. But there’s no denying that viewers have felt fed up with the three-year wait, and that trend shouldn’t be repeated with other TV shows.

American Horror Story is a different show from Stranger Things. While it’s just as engaging and fascinating, and the stars are just as talented, it’s not an epic sci-fi tale that has special effects, CGI, and big settings. Villains like Twisty the Clown are horrifying, but they’re not as big and flashy as Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and his Upside Down creatures. Since new seasons of AHS have come out almost every year, it would be great to continue that release schedule instead of making fans wait several years.

If American Horror Story season 13 started filming in 2026, then it could come out in 2027, and hopefully, another season of American Horror Stories will arrive then, too. Since the latest season of the spinoff series premiered in October 2024, fans are also waiting to hear if the spinoff has been renewed for another season. While Ryan Murphy is hard at work on several TV shows, and a few of them aren’t part of the horror genre, there are still a lot of people interested in AHS and the spinoff.

Hopefully, the long wait for AHS season 13 will result in an exciting plotline, and familiar faces will show up. Although Jessica Lange isn’t coming back, at least fans know that Sarah Paulson is. It would be great to see other staple cast members.

Ryan Murphy Once Shared How He Comes Up With American Horror Story Ideas

American Horror Story Lana as an inpatient

In a 2019 interview with Deadline when season 9, 1984, had just ended, Ryan Murphy talked about how he decides what each new season should be about. He said:

“Every season by Halloween, I come up with what the winner (theme) is… There’s always the runner-ups, and I’m like ‘Hmm could this be something?’ We flirted with aliens, we flirted with space, we flirted with some things that were more interesting than others. I think that at the heart of it, it’s always about Americana.”

Murphy continued:

“It’s always a mysterious process of how I come up with the idea. I really don’t even understand it. I have a list of finalists on a piece of paper and I work on all of them. It’s just where is my life when I’m working on them.”

Whether American Horror Story season 13 is about an urban legend, or takes some inspiration from Hotel, it will no doubt be full of creepy moments and great performances.