‘American Horror Story: Coven’ — Five Things You Need to Know About Season 3

Just in case you’ve never seen 'American Horror Story,' the interesting concept is that every season is its own individual story that wraps up with each season finale. The first season was based around a haunted house that, if you died inside of it, your spirit lived on there forever. The second season was entitled ‘Asylum’ and focused on a Massachusetts mental institution in 1964 that was full of aliens, demons, Nazis, mutants, and murderers.

Season 3 of 'American Horror Story' will be called ‘Coven’ and will take place in New Orleans with a focus on witchcraft. This sounds promising as it seems there will be one central theme instead of the story moving in a numerous different directions.

Just as season two saw numerous actors return in different roles, so goes season three as well. Although not as numerous, there are several greats returning this year. Among them are Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, and fan favorite Evan Peters who, along with Lange, has starred in every season of the show. Taissa Farmiga will be back for season three after not appearing at all during season two.

Last year saw several unannounced appearances including Dylan McDermott as Bloody Face so it will be interesting to see who else may be showing up as the story unfolds.

In January, Murphy did a Q&A where he revealed that, in addition to some casting news, that the upcoming season will have an iconic monster, like season two’s Bloody Face, but this time it will be a woman. While the news of a female villain isn’t exactly a shock, her identity has created much speculation. If the theme of witchcraft is any indication, we are probably looking at some sort of ultra powerful witch that will be tormenting victims throughout the season. Good luck with that, guys!

It was recently announced that Kathy Bates, Gabourey Sidibe, and Angela Bassett have signed on for the fourth season. Show creator Ryan Murphy revealed in February that Kathy Bates would play a “bad, bad woman” who is “five times worse than her ‘Misery’ character” which should be quite interesting.

While we don’t know what the dynamics of Sidibe and Bassett’s characters will be, we do know the name of a fourth actress just added to the mix: Scream 4 star Emma Roberts. Roberts will portray Madison who is described as a “self involved party girl.” Interestingly enough she is currently dating her soon-to-be co-star Evan Peters so that should make for interesting chemistry between the two characters.

In a recent interview Evan Peters said that even the main cast doesn’t know much about the details of the plot but promises that this season will be much scarier than the last which is very encouraging to fans of the show.

In addition Murphy had also stated that when he pitched the idea to Bates “her mouth was drop-jawed because what I was pitching actually happened, it’s a true event.” If it’s as good as the hype the cast is creating then we should be in for a fantastic season.

'American Horror Story: Coven' premieres October 2013 on FX with a January 2014 finale.