FX American Horror Story season 4 Release Date: New and Returning Cast Members, and a Departure

By Ken Salcedo Aug 13, 2014 08:39 AM EDT

Returning Cast Members Emma Roberts and Sarah Paulson — (Photo : https://www.facebook.com/americanhorrorstory)

FX American Horror Story season 4 Release Date: New and Returning Cast Members, and a Departure

Season 4 of FX's anthology series, American Horror Story, just announced that singer, author, and actress Patti Labelle will be joining the cast as the mother of Gabourey Sidibe's character. EOnline and E! News confirmed the news on August 11 on their website.

Much like the previous seasons of the show, the new season will be a different story taking place in a different time era. The fourth season of American Horror Story is subtitled Freak Show and is set in 1952 and is about the last freak show in America and its freaks trying to keep the business alive . The cast includes series regulars Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Frances Conroy, Denis O'Hare, Jamie Brewer, Emma Roberts and Kathy Bates. Also, new additions to the show include Michael Chiklis, Wes Bentley and John Carrol Lynch.

With the success of the previous seasons, it's no surprise that series creator and showrunner Ryan Murphy immediately started work on the fourth season shortly after finishing work on the previous season, Coven. Freak Show is described as "[director] Douglas Sirk meets the movie Zodiac" by Executive Producer Tim Minear during San Diego Comic-Con. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ryan Murphy revealed a few details on the fourth season saying, "I Just love it. It feels really right. I thought it was going to be light but it's turning out to be quite terrifyingly dark, which feels much more like the Asylum season. But look - if you have a character named the Clown Killer, it's going to be dark." Series veteran Sarah Paulson also revealed her character through a tweet saying, "So excited to be playing Bette AND Dot this season. Two heads are better than one! #AHSFreakShow." She will most likely be playing a two-headed character who's one of the attractions at the Freak Show.

Variety also reports that series Makeup artist for the previous 3 seasons, Christien Tinsley, will not be returning for season 4 due to scheduling conflict. Tinsley and his team were nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Mini-Series, Movie or A Special for the last 3 season of American Horror Story. Tinsley will not work on American Horror Story's fourth season for he's working on Westworld, a science fiction series for HBO.

There has been no official release date of the premiere of the fourth season, but it is safe to assume that it will be around October much like its previous season premieres.