You ready to have your mind blown? Great. Because TheWrap has a theory about what the theme is for “American Horror Story” Season 8, thanks to a clue Ryan Murphy dropped Friday and a little help from Reddit. And it’s explosive.
Murphy — who is notorious for being tight-lipped about upcoming installments of the FX anthology series — threw a number of details about No. 8 to the media this week, including the hint that it will take place “18 months from today.” (Back in January he said it would be set 10 to 20 years in the future, but fine.)
That statement was made during a pre-Emmy voting “for your consideration” panel Friday night in Los Angeles: April 6, 2018. That means if we’re taking Murphy literally (which we should probably never do, but what the heck) we’re looking at October 6, 2019.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the creator then encouraged fans to do a little digging to figure out exactly what is going on a year and a half from now. So they did, while also taking into consideration the title circulating the internet, “Radioactive.” And it looks like one of them may have found the answer, if not taken a very solid step in the right direction.
“October 6th will be the 58th anniversary of President Kennedy telling Americans to build nuclear bomb shelters,” Redditor Gato1980 wrote. “I know it’s kind of a stretch and probably not right, I just thought it might have something to do with the ‘Nuclear’ title of the season that’s been floating around.”
And, uh, according to Politico, this user is right.
On Oct. 6, 1961, President Kennedy advised citizens to build bomb shelters to protect themselves in anticipation of possible nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Kennedy also said the government would begin providing this protection for all Americans.
“There is need for a nationwide understanding of what each level of government, each private organization and each citizen can do to bring about and maintain the best attainable protection for the civilian population against the major effects of a thermonuclear attack,” JFK said in the speech, given one year before the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Now, the only mix up here was the user’s use of the title “Nuclear,” rather than “Radioactive.” However, we don’t even know for sure that “Radioactive” is the right label for Season 8 — though 20th Century Fox did file a trademark application with the USPTO for the title “American Horror Story: Radioactive” on March 6.
So does that mean Murphy is putting his favorite group of actors into a not-so-distant future where America is either about to, or already has, gone to nuclear war? It seems like a definite possibility right now. Well, about as definite as anything ever is with Murphy.
The showrunner himself wouldn’t confirm or deny the “Radioactive” title last night when asked. But he did give out a few more details about the season, including that “it’s heightened” compared to the last season, “Cult.” “It’s not necessarily as real and grounded as the past season. We’re sort of getting back to ‘Asylum’ and ‘Coven.’ That’s the tone of it,” he said, according to THR.
Murphy also doubled down on his announcement from earlier in the week that Joan Collins had been added to the cast. As of Wednesday, a representative for the actress told TheWrap she was still in “final talks” for a leading role. Previously announced leads are “AHS” staples Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters (who Murphy revealed Friday will be playing a comedic hairdresser and Collins’ grandson) and the returning Kathy Bates.
Representatives for 20th Century Fox, FX and Murphy did not immediately respond to TheWrap‘s request for comment on the season’s title or theme.