After months of teasing, Ryan Murphy finally revealed the title of the seventh season of American Horror Story on Thursday night at San Diego Comic-Con. The Emmy Award-winning master of the TV anthology used the fan-driven event to announce that the forthcoming season of the horror series will be titled American Horror Story: Cult.
Also tonight, FX announced a premiere date for AHS: Cult, which will debut on Tuesday, September 5.
The title unveiling came during a hyped event at the San Diego waterfront, where a series of images of unsettling and sinister-looking clowns set against a red, white and blue palette were projected onto a mist of water. They marched and moved in eerie unison as the distorted and disturbing AHS soundtrack played. The video eventually referred fans to the website AHS7.com, where a similar video played. As the presentation played on a loop, performers dressed as the clowns walked among the fans, asking them to “Join us” while giving them pins with AHS7 stamped on them.
Murphy started dropping hints about the new season of AHS as early as May, leaving us nuggets of cryptic info. His posts included concept art of a creature with arms coming out of its head with the caption “AHS Season 7 clue: ambidexterity” as well as the a hint of the return of Twisty the clown from season 4 played by John Carroll Lynch. Other clues included a body covered in bees as well as the distinct font used by the series.
The biggest hint he dropped was when he posted images of the U.S. flag as well as a photo of a blue hair with the caption, “AHS Season 7: Red, white and blue clue” leading us to believe that this season will lean towards patriotism and/or take its cue from last November’s election. Based on the clues, the Comic-Con reveal of Cult as the season’s title, doesn’t connect all the dots, but gives us a better idea of what to expect from the upcoming season starring Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Billie Lourd, Billy Eichner, Cheyenne Jackson, Alison Pill, Colton Haynes and Adina Porter.