American Horror Story is getting a spinoff. Maybe?
In an Instagram post, series co-creator Ryan Murphy announced the Emmy-winning anthology series is getting a spinoff series of self-contained episodes titled American Horror Stories. But here's the catch: Murphy posted about the "news" with a fan-made graphic of several American Horror Story cast members including Jessica Lange, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson doing a Zoom video reunion.
"American Horror Story cast zoom call...where we reminisced about the good times...the spin off we're doing called American Horror Stories (one hour contained episodes)...when we will start filming the next season of the mothership...and other stuff I cannot print," Murphy captioned the image. "It was so much fun and I'm glad we caught up. I miss everyone!"
Several outlets reported the caption and news as fact. Some, like Deadline, cited sources. But the call depicted in the photo shared by Murphy never happened. The graphic came from an AHS fan page that pieced the graphics together from other sources and tagged Murphy. For example, it looks like Lange's image came from a GoldDerby.com interview, same for Bates. A reunion call could've happened and spinoff plans could've been hatched, but it wasn't the "screenshot" shared by Murphy and the fan page.
FX, home of Murphy shows Pose, American Horror Story and American Crime Story, declined to comment on the possible new series. Murphy signed a production deal with Netflix in 2018. Under the deal, his current FX and Fox shows are still in production and can produce spinoffs, as seen with 9-1-1 and the birth of 9-1-1: Lone Star.
Season 10 of American Horror Story was set to begin production just as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States. Stars lined up for the new season include Paulson, Peters, Bates, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Adina Porter, Lily Rabe, Angelica Ross, Finn Wittrock and Macaulay Culkin. Murphy previously revealed to E! News he got Culkin to sign on by giving him a character pitch and "I told him he has crazy, erotic sex with Kathy Bates and does other things."
"And he paused and he goes, 'This sounds like the role I was born to play.' So, he signed up right then and there," Murphy said.
No word on whether American Horror Story premiere will be delayed because of the production shut down.