Ryan Murphy revealed there were plans to have a crossover between American Horror Story and Scream Queens — but it was cut after Ariana Grande‘s surprise exit from season 13 of the FX series.
“It was funny because at one point I was going to have the Scream Queens come on to this season, but Ariana was touring and I couldn’t make it work,” Murphy, 60, told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, September 23. “But she was like, ‘I still want to do it! I just can’t be on tour.’ So I was like, ‘All right, let me think of it.’”
Grande, 33, was originally meant to star in the newest season of American Horror Story before the touring schedule for her Eternal Sunshine Tour prevented an appearance. Murphy, however, hinted that not all hope is lost.
“Sometimes it takes a while,” he added. “But it was the tour, which I knew. She warned me in advance that it was gonna be really hard to schedule, and the weekend we had to shoot it, she was touring, but I said, ‘OK, I’ll bump it down the road,’ so I haven’t given up. I love her.”
News broke in July that the singer would not appear on the upcoming 13th season of AHS. Grande’s schedule has been packed after the release of Wicked and Wicked: For Good. She also has Focker-in-Law coming out in November following the end of her Eternal Sunshine Tour.
A rep for Grande later announced she would be stepping back from the public eye.
“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” read a statement shared in August. “This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”
Before making the move to movie roles, Grande delivered a scene-stealing performance as Chanel #2 on Scream Queens.
The Fox slasher series, which premiered in 2015, starred an ensemble cast that included Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Glen Powell and Keke Palmer. During the show’s first season, Scream Queens focused on members of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority who were getting killed off by the mysterious Red Devil.
In season 2, the satirical anthology introduced the Green Meanie, who targeted a hospital and its staff — which included many of the cast members from the first season. Stars such as Kirstie Alley, Taylor Lautner, John Stamos and James Earl III rounded out the sophomore season.
While it’s not hard to remember recurring favorites on American Horror Story like Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange, the same can’t be said for one season — or even one episode — guest stars, such as Adam Levine, Jenna Dewan and Naomi Campbell. Lena Dunham, for example, starred in one episode of Cult […]
After its 2017 cancellation, Curtis, 67, praised the “fantastic” series for the impact it had on its audience. “I’ve never been part of something that had that much lift off before anybody had ever seen it,” she shared in a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It was so inventive, so dark, so well written, so well directed. It actually felt like it was going to break television.”
Murphy, meanwhile, has hinted on numerous occasions that he was trying to revive the series.
“Yes, so funny, Emma and I were talking about that yesterday. You know, they want me to do it,” he told THR on Wednesday. “I don’t know.”
Murphy continued: “Emma really wants to do it. I know Billie wants to do it. Lea wants to do it. Ariana wants to do it and Glen [Powell], my favorite of all time.”
American Horror Story season 13 premieres on FX and Hulu Thursday, September 24, at 9 p.m. ET.
