According to a recent trademark filing, American Horror Story season 8 might be set to explore some type of post-apocalypse scenario. Ever since the strategy of holding back details on a season until late in the game worked so well for drumming up interest in American Horror Story season 6, the hit FX anthology series has remained slow to reveal information about further seasons. Season 7’s Cult title and theme weren’t revealed until a mere two months before it premiered, and currently, almost nothing is known about this fall’s season 8.
The only small tidbit available to fans about American Horror Story season 8 so far is series co-creator Ryan Murphy’s January statement that it will be set in the future, which he more recently clarified as being the near future. While that doesn’t reveal much, it’s still something, as every prior AHS season has been set in either the present day of its airing or decades in the past.
Now, a new Twentieth Century Fox trademark filing (first noticed by the twitter account AHS Leaks) has shed some possible new light on what American Horror Story season 8 will be about. The trademark is for the title American Horror Story: Radioactive, which will presumably be the moniker of season 8. Considering that the story will be set in the future, this leads one to the logical conclusion that some type of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic storyline is in the offing.
The most obvious interpretation of the Radioactive subtitle listed in the trademark filing is that American Horror Story season 8 will see its characters beset by a nuclear holocaust, perhaps after a nuclear war. This would certainly follow on in a way from Cult’s many Trumpian themes, as many of the president’s more vocal detractors have long-felt that his tough talk with the North Korean regime might eventually lead to Kim Jong-un launching a nuke at the U.S. mainland. Whether that’s a fair concern can (and has) been argued endlessly among both sides of the political aisle, but it’s well-known that Ryan Murphy is very much not a supporter of Trump or his administration.
Murphy’s personal politics aside, he also loves to surprise fans, meaning that season 8’s potential radioactive apocalypse might have nothing whatsoever to do with Trump, and will instead be triggered by something completely unexpected. No matter what causes the inciting event, it’s also likely a safe bet that this wouldn’t be a run of the mill apocalypse tale. American Horror Story never hesitates to get crazy, and even if AHS: Radioactive is indeed about a nuclear holocaust, one shouldn’t expect the results to be predictable. Based on past seasons, it wouldn’t be surprising to see zombies, mutated animals, or even aliens make an appearance.
We’ve reached out to FX for comment on the American Horror Story: Radioactive trademark filing, and will update the article accordingly if and when they respond.
More: American Horror Story Season 9 Likely to be Murder House/Coven Crossover
American Horror Story season 8 will premiere on FX in 2018, likely in the fall.
Source: Justia Trademark Search (via AHS Leaks)
