Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages–no, let’s face it, American Horror Story is not for the faint of heart. Here’s your first official look at the ensemble cast of Ryan Murphy’s latest horror story, Freak Show. Watch them come alive in a new one-minute teaser embedded after the break. Look out for Sarah Paulson’s conjoined twins, Angela Bassett’s three-breasted beauty, Michael Chiklis’ strong man, and Kathy Bates is the bearded lady. AHS: Freak Show premieres October 8 on FX. Oh, and that hashtag is German and translates to “We are all freaks.”
In addition to the teaser, jump after the break to learn about a most exciting character addition. I’ll give you a hint: the scoop comes seasoned with a dash of salt and…………
PEPPER! Actress Naomi Grossman returns to the AHS franchise reprising her role as Pepper who was first introduced in the series’ second season, Asylum, as a fan-favorite patient at Briarcliff Manor. This marks the first time in the anthological series’ history that a character from one season is finding its way into another season. Typically veteran AHS actors like Jessica Lange and Evan Peters will stay on for the series’ run but they will play entirely new characters placed in a fresh setting and time period. Though Freak Show takes place 12 years before the actions unfold in Asylum, Murphy made the conscious decision (which he did not take lightly, according to Entertainment Weekly) to add Pepper into the Freak Show mix.
“What Elsa [Jessica Lange’s character] has done for 20 years is she goes around to hospitals and jails and rescues these ‘freak’ circus performers who are going to be shipped away to asylums and she signs the waivers and she becomes their guardians,” Murphy told EW. Freak Show “is sort of like what happened to Pepper before she went to the asylum.”
If you thought the fourth iteration of AHS was shaping up to be the series’ best yet, this is icing on the cake! Now go enjoy a good knock knock joke courtesy of the one-and-only Pepper and eye a still of her holding the world’s smallest woman in Freak Show above.