AMERICAN HORROR STORY

American Horror Story Season 13 Brings the Nightmares Together

Thirteen seasons. Thirteen episodes. And this time, the past may be coming back with it.

American Horror Story returns for its 13th installment, officially titled 13, with Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk bringing together one of the anthology's biggest collections of returning stars.

Since premiering in 2011, American Horror Story has taken audiences inside Murder House, an asylum, a coven of witches, a traveling freak show, a haunted hotel and even the apocalypse.

Season 13 appears ready to bring pieces of that history together.

While the new season has strong connections to Coven, the story expands beyond a single previous installment, with familiar characters and horrors from across the AHS universe expected to collide in what has been described as an “Avengers-style” crossover of the anthology's past.

And the number 13 itself plays an important role.

Long associated with superstition, fear and bad luck, 13 becomes part of the season's mythology as old nightmares return and entirely new ones emerge.

The massive returning cast includes Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman, Frances Conroy, Jamie Brewer, John Carroll Lynch and Jessica Lange, among other familiar faces.

For longtime fans, that means the biggest mystery may not simply be what the new story is about.

It's who everyone is playing and which characters from the past could return.

After more than a decade of interconnected nightmares, American Horror Story may finally be opening the door to all of them.

Light the candles.

Draw the pentagrams.

And don't forget what number season this is.

American Horror Story: 13 premieres September 24 on FX, with streaming available on Hulu and Disney+ with Hulu.