American Horror Story Freak Show, the 4th Season, Cast, Characters and Plot Revealed, Premieres Oct. 8

By Kara Michelle Sep 18, 2014 08:29 AM EDT

American Horror Story Freak Show, the 4th Season, Cast, Characters and Plot Revealed, Premieres Oct. 8

American Horror Story is coming back for a fourth season, and this time it's called the American Horror Story: Freak Show. The new season is scheduled to premiere its first episode "Monsters Among Us" this October 8.

The American Horror Story season 4 episode 1 will be directed by Ryan Murphy. The upcoming new season will have a total of 13 episodes, with different directors directing and writing every episode. The cast and characters for the Freak Show are finally confirmed.

The upcoming season will revolve around the last remaining American freak shows in Jupiter, Florida in 1952, and the "freaks" are willing to do anything to keep their circus shows going. The episodes of the new season will center on the conflicts between the freaks and unknown evil forces.

Earlier this year, FX CEO John Landgraf shared a few details on the upcoming new season at the Television Critics Academy. He said that the new season is "a mix between the camp of "Coven" and the darkness of "Asylum".

In Entertainment Weekly's Fall Preview issue, Sarah Paulson, one of the show's cast members, said that the new season is about "being a forgotten soul that's been cast aside in the world. Everybody feels like that at some point in their lives".

Another cast member, Jessica Lange, will be playing a role in the upcoming new season as "Elsa Mars", a character that used to be a German cabaret star in the 1930s. Jessica Lange commented in Entertainment Weekly that Elsa is "very manipulative, loves her performers" and "truly cares for them in her own selfish, narcissistic way. It's not just exploitation". If you check out the first "Freak Show" trailer, you will see Elsa Mars in a tent-patterned dress.

As for the rest of the cast members, actress Sarah Paulson will be playing a twin "freak", Bette and Dot. Kathy Bates will be Ethel, the "bearded woman" and Elsa's right hand woman. Evan Peters will be Jimmy, Ethel's son with "lobster-like hands". Emma Roberts and Denis O'Hare will be con artists. Michael Chiklis will be Dell Toledo, Ethel's former spouse. Angela Bassett will be Desiree Dupress, the women with 3 breasts. John Caroll will be Twisty, the clown. Frances Conroy will be Gloria Mott, the wealthy mother, while Finn Wittrock will be Dandy Mott, her son, in the upcoming season.

Watch the "freaks" start their shows this October 8 in American Horror Story: Freak Show, the fourth season on FX at 10PM.