‘American Horror Story’: There Was Almost a Charles Manson Season

The main chatter leading up to a new season of American Horror Story is always what the theme will be. Creator Ryan Murphy has taken fans inside an insane asylum, a freak show circus, a haunted hotel and several other creepy locales to tell the most terrifying stories possible.

Season 7 will focus on the theme Cult, but it originally spawned out of a scrapped theme: the Manson Murders.

Murphy revealed during a recent press event that for several seasons he was close to the adapting the cults’ 1969 reign of terror that resulted in the murders of nine people, including actress Sharon Tate.

However, the showrunner said that he just couldn’t find the right take on the crimes.

“For many seasons the runner-up idea has been Charles Manson and the Manson family,” he said. “I’ve been researching it, but it never felt right to me. It’s been done a million times and I didn’t know how to make it fresh.”

However, fans will get to see a bit of Charles Manson in Cult.

Through a series of flashbacks, Evan Peters will portray several real-life cult leaders, including Manson.

The main plot of Cult will follow Peters’ character, the cult leader Kai, as he grows in power.

American Horror Story: Cult premieres Sept. 5 on FX at 10 p.m. ET.