‘American Horror Story’ Season 4 Spoilers: 15 Things To Know About ‘Freak Show’ Before The Premiere

Set your alarms because you definitely won’t want to miss the highly anticipated Season 4 premiere of “American Horror Story” on Wednesday, Oct. 8. After an L.A. murder house, “Asylum” and “Coven,” the FX miniseries will be bringing viewers to a “Freak Show” in the fourth installment.

As we previously reported, “American Horror Story: Freak Show” will be set in Jupiter, Florida, in 1952. The hamlet of Jupiter is known as being “quiet,” but that will all change when a “troupe of curiosities” arrives. The arrival of the troupe coincides with “the strange emergence of a dark entity that savagely threatens the lives of the townsfolk and freaks alike.” Season 4 will tell the story “of the performers and their desperate journey of survival amidst the dying world of the American Carny experience.”

With “AHS” alum Jessica Lange at the head of the cast for the fourth installment, fans will also be welcoming back Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Francis Conroy, Denis O’Hare, Emma Roberts, Gabourey Sidibe, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett in brand new roles. Meanwhile, viewers will be saying hello to a handful of new faces, like Wes Bentley, Michael Chiklis, Finn Wittrock, Patti LaBelle and John Carroll Lynch, among others.

Check out our spoiler roundup for “American Horror Story” Season 4 before episode 1 of “Freak Show” airs on FX on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at 10 p.m. EDT:

1. Extended Premiere

Make sure you set aside an extra half hour. Ryan Murphy announced on Twitter that the premiere of “Freak Show” will be 90 minutes instead of the usual 60. We’re calling this one an early Halloween treat.

2. Episode 1 Synopsis

According to the released synopsis, the premiere will introduce one of the “only surviving sideshows in the country.” The sideshow is struggling to stay in business “during the dawning era of televisions, leading the “eccentric purveyor of the freak show” to seek an opportunity to lead her troupe to salvation through a terrifying discovery at a local farmhouse.

3. Sing Along

“American Horror Story” fans will once again be able to see Jessica Lange belt out some tunes. Lange’s character, Elsa Mars, will be singing in the Season 4 premiere. TV Guide compared the musical number to “Moulin Rouge” rather than co-creator Ryan Murphy’s other hit series, “Glee.”

(Bonus: E! Online dished that Sarah Paulson will also be involved in a musical number in episode 1.)

4. Neil Patrick Harris

“How I Met Your Mother” alum Neil Patrick Harris might just get a part in “Freak Show.” The actor expressed interest in joining the cast in July, and Ryan Murphy reached out to him via Twitter. While nothing has been set in stone, the series co-creator told TV Line that he’s working with NPH on “melding” ideas for his on-screen appearance.

“We’re inching forward,” he teased. “Because of his schedule, we’d do it later in the run, maybe one episode, maybe two.”

5. Skyler Samuels

“Nine Lives of Chloe King” star Skyler Samuels signed on to play a “pivotal character” in Season 4 of “American Horror Story.” The addition of the actress was announced in mid-September, with the only detail on her character being that she’s a “local” who will get entangled in a “tough situation.”

6. Elsa Mars

Jessica Lange’s character might be “manipulative” this season, but she won’t be the villain that fans have seen in previous seasons.

“The thing I want to be very clear in this is that my character Elsa really loves these people,” Lange said to Entertainment Weekly of her role as the leader of the freak show. “She truly cares for them, in her own selfish, narcissistic way. But they mean a great deal to her. It’s not just exploitative. She’s tough, and she’s mean sometimes, and all of that, but she really does love them.”

7. Bette And Dot

Sarah Paulson will have not one, but two roles in “American Horror Story: Freak Show.” The “AHS” alum will be playing conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler. According to Paulson, the twins are very different, despite sharing one body.

“Even though they share a body, they have different brains and different hearts,” she dished to Entertainment Weekly. “They experience everything differently from each one another.”

Bette is described as dark, but more in the depressed sense rather than evil. Dot on the other hand is said to be “innocent” -- yet cynical. Each woman will have a different relationship with Elsa. Dot as more of a Jude/Lana relationship, Paulson said of her interactions with Lange’s character.

8. Patti LaBelle And Gabourey Sidibe

Grammy winner Patti LaBelle will be taking a short break from music to appear in four episodes of “American Horror Story” Season 4. The music legend will be playing a local in the town of Jupiter and the mother of Gabourey Sidibe’s character.

Sidibe’s character is a well off Barbizon School grad who must return to Jupiter to “deal with a family matter.”

9. Leslie Jordan Exits

Leslie Jordan, who joined the “American Horror Story” franchise in Season 3, was set to appear in “Freak Show.” Unfortunately, the actor announced that he had to leave the cast in mid-August after entering the “Celebrity Big Brother” house.

10. Matt Bomer

After working with Ryan Murphy on “The Normal Heart,” Matt Bomer signed on for a guest role in “American Horror Story: Freak Show.” Murphy told EW that his role is “warped.”

11. Casting: Extras

Filming for “Freak Show” took place in New Orleans, and the show posted a listing for extras. The series was reportedly looking for “Human Freaks of Nature,” including: extreme muscles, albinism, alopecia, extremely hairy, extremely tall (6’8” and up), heavily pierced, little people, morbidly obese, physical deformities, skinny and uncommonly short.

12. Welcome Back, Pepper

Pepper will be the first “American Horror Story” character to be featured in more than one season. The character, played by Naomi Grossman, made her first appearance in Season 2, “Asylum.” Pepper was born with microcephaly, a rare neurological condition. She was institutionalized at Briarcliff Asylum after allegedly drowning her sister’s baby and cutting off its ears. However, it was later revealed that her brother-in-law had framed her.

13. Emma Roberts and Evan Peters

Real-life love birds Emma Roberts and Evan Peters will once again be playing each other’s love interest in Season 4 of “American Horror Story.” Roberts is playing a fortune-teller (and con artist) named Maggie, while Peters will be playing Jimmy Darling, a freak show performer who was born with ectrodactyly.

14. Episode Titles

Some episode titles for “Freak Show” have been released online ahead of the premiere:

Episode 1 – “Monsters Among Us”

Episode 2 – “Massacres and Matinees”

Episode 3 – “Edward Mordrake, Pt. 1”

Episode 4 – “Edward Mordrake, Pt 2.”

Episode 5 – “Pink Cupcakes”

Episode 6 – “Bullseye”

Episode 7 – “Test of Strength”

15. Promo Videos

The FX miniseries released more than 20 promo and teaser videos for the fourth installment of "American Horror Story." You can watch all of the promotional videos HERE.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show” will premiere on FX on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at 10 p.m. EDT.