The cast and creators of FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel used their time in front of the Television Critics Association on Friday to preview what to expect from the fifth season of the anthology series.
As with every drama from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, plot details are being kept close to the vest about the season that explores a haunted hotel.
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Bassett is Ramona Royal, who has a strong “and real nasty relationship” with Gaga and Wittrock’s character. She’s an actress and while she doesn’t live at the hotel, she visits often.
Bates is Iris, who runs the hotel. “I have relationships with Matt Bomer and Wes and I can’t stand Paulson [her character]; I hate you,” she said. “Liz Taylor and I have a very close relationship.”
Paulson is Sally, who lives at the hotel and “hates Iris in a rather ancient way for reasons that will be revealed quickly,” she said. The character has a budding and dark relationship with Bentley’s character.
Murphy revealed that Gaga — who begins filming Monday and was not at the TCA panel — will play Elizabeth, the hotel’s owner. “She is a very wealthy social doyenne who is consumed with art, fashion and people and she has a nefarious plan that is revealed in the first episode that plays out over the season.”
Here are a few more things to know about Hotel that were revealed at TCA:
• Hotel is much more in line with season one of AHS — the Connie Britton-led Murder House. “This season harkens back to the first season and is much more rooted in the honest, primal fears that the first season was,” Murphy said. He noted that which season and characters people enjoy says a lot about the kind of horror fan viewers are. Season one was a psychological season that appeals to “true horror fans.” Asylum was for people who really like drama. Coven was more for younger fans, while Freak Show was more artistic. Hotel, Falchuk said, further explores the horror trope of being trapped that builds upon Murder House, which was much more claustrophobic. “While I feel like the first season trapped you in that house, the second season was very oppressive in the asylum; [here] the horror is sneaking out of the hotel,” he said, noting the show would go outside to the streets more and have a moodier and noir vibe. “When you go home, where ever your bed is, it’s the least safe space in the entire world.”
• Hotel, like Murder House, is set in Los Angeles. The hotel, Murphy said, is set in downtown Los Angeles and explores a lot of American horrors, including addiction. “We were really inspired by the ideal of this hotel surveillance video that showed a girl getting into an elevator in haunted hotel and who was never seen again,” Murphy said, noting Hotel was first conceived around two years ago when the story broke.
• As for how Hotel connects to other AHS seasons, Murphy said to expect those to appear around episode six or seven.
AHS: Hotel debuts Oct. 7 on FX. The 13-episode season runs through the end of January.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter