American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy says that real footage from the 2016 presidential election will be featured in the upcoming seventh season of the FX anthology series. AHS has evolved quite a bit over the years, from its stellar debut with Murder House, followed by Asylum and Coven, to Freak Show, Hotel and most recently, Roanoke. But never has the show been inspired by real-life events (at least that we know of), until Murphy announced that the latest chapter will be set amid the events of the 2016 U.S. election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
Murphy, who is also the co-creator behind Emmy-winning American Crime Story and most recently, the brilliantly-conceived Feud: Bette and Joan, is starting to part with more details about his next season of AHS. In an interview to wrap up the freshman season of Feud, Murphy says Trump or Clinton will only appear in real-life footage on American Horror Story.
Here is what Murphy told E! Online, regarding the next season of American Horror Story:
“We don’t have actors playing them. You’ll see them on television. The first 10 minutes of the season, this season, takes place in a very eerie macabre way on election night and there’s something terrible that happens in the lives of our characters on election night as they’re watching it all go down. Which in itself was a horror story, so it’s like a horror story upon a horror story.”
While the election and now-President Trump have been parodied on such TV shows as Saturday Night Live (in a spot-on impersonation by Alec Baldwin) and will be the focus of Comedy Central’s upcoming The President Show (created by and starring comedy impersonator Anthony Atamanuik), the new chapter of AHS promises to give the election a more dramatic – and horrifying – approach. Whether or not AHS will become a Trump bash fest is yet to be seen, but if it is, it will the latest and perhaps most high-profile event in Hollywood’s ongoing rebellion against the president.
The interesting thing to watch for coming out of the politically-charged season of AHS is to see how fans respond to the Trump-Clinton election narrative. That’s because while the creatives and talent may be on the same page, politically, it doesn’t mean that all of its viewers will be, suddenly making Season 7 a bigger ratings risk.
If the show alienates some voters because of their political affiliation – or maybe alienates people on both sides of the aisle because they’re just plain sick and tired of hearing about politics (especially in a medium that’s supposed to entertain and not preach) – AHS could potentially turn Murphy’s profession life, at the very least, into a horror story of its own.
Source: E! Online
