Anna Daniels
Murphy himself was feeding that speculation as recently as November of last year. Speaking with Deadline, the super-producer said, “We’re working on an idea for season 10 that I think people will love because it’s about reuniting fan-favorite actors to come back — because it might be our last season. It’s the last season we have contracted.”
It’s quite a turnaround from Murphy making those remarks to FX handing him the green light for three additional seasons less than two months later, but we can think of at least one factor that likely played a part: the critical response to 1984. Some fans are of the opinion (and we agree) that the series has been… how shall we put this… of inconsistent quality for some time now, with season 5 through 8 (Hotel, Roanoke, Cult, and Apocalypse) garnering mixed reviews from critics and inconsistent ratings.
1984, by contrast, was the best-reviewed batch of episodes since the remarkably strong second and third seasons (Asylum and Coven), and it could very well be that sometime during the last couple of months, the powers that be had a little chat with Murphy about whether he felt like he could continue to bring the same level of quality he did for 1984. Whatever the case, FX brass have seen their way clear to letting the overall highest-rated show in the history of their network stick around for a little while longer. Of course, there’s absolutely no word on what the themes of American Horror Story seasons 11, 12, and 13 could possibly be, and Murphy himself almost certainly has no idea at this point. We do have a few itsy-bitsy details, though, about season 10.
Written by: Looper
