‘American Horror Story: Cult’ Won’t Feature Any Supernatural Elements

In an interview with American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy, new details about the show’s upcoming season have emerged, including one very interesting detail that states this season will have no supernatural elements.

According to EW, Murphy revealed Cult will actually be the first season of American Horror Story to do so, opting to go with a more grounded plot.

Additionally, this season will feature real-life historical cult leaders.

In his interview, Murphy also revealed that American Horror Story star Evan Peters will be playing a number of different cult leaders from decades past, including Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and, interestingly… Andy Warhol.

Warhol’s appearance is what sets up Girls creator/star Lena Dunham’s entrance to the show in the seventh episode of Cult.

“Lena Dunham is playing Valerie Solanas, who attempted to shoot Andy Warhol, because she felt denied the cult of personality that was Warhol and the Factory at the time,” Murphy said.

In addition to Dunham and Peters, American Horror Story vet Sarah Paulson will star, as well as series newcomers Billie Lourd (who previously worked with Ryan Murphy on FOX’s Scream Queens) and Billy Eichner, from Billy on the Street.

In addition to the cast and character details, Murphy also spoke about the differences between the previous season, Roanoke, and Cult.

“With season 6, we really wanted to strip everything away, sort of deconstruct it. I thought that was a really good jolt,” Murphy explained.

Lastly, Murphy also talked about the political dynamics of the story in Cult, addressing the talk about how it would revolve around the presidential election of 2016.

“Last year, at this time, everybody was talking about the election, and everybody was talking about those two candidates,” Murphy said, adding that the opening of the show will be different than he imagined it because “everybody thought Hillary Clinton was gonna win in a landslide.”