Ahead of the premiere of AHS: 13, Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter that Ariana Grande was originally meant to show up in American Horror Story season 13. The collaboration fell through, and Murphy pointed to Grande’s tour dates as the reason it didn’t come together. He said she was slated to return as Chanel #2, the character she played in Scream Queens.
“It was funny because at one point I was going to have the Scream Queens come on to this season,” Murphy said, “but Ariana was touring and I couldn’t make it work.” He added, “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.'”
The Chanel #2 Plan
The Fox horror-comedy Scream Queens was created by Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, and Grande played Chanel #2, one of the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority sisters who were hunted by a murderer called the Red Devil throughout the series.
The main cast included Emma Roberts as Chanel #1, Billie Lourd as Chanel #3, Abigail Breslin as Chanel #5 and Lea Michele. Grande’s character was killed off in the first season, and the series was canceled after two seasons. The potential crossover would have brought the worlds of Murphy’s American Horror Story and Scream Queens together for the first time.
Murphy said the scheduling problem was obvious from the start. “She warned me in advance that it was gonna be really hard to schedule,” he told THR, “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.”
The Revival Question
Murphy hasn’t given up on the idea entirely. When asked if he was thinking about reviving Scream Queens, he pointed to the show’s core cast members.
“Yes, so funny, Emma [Roberts] and I were talking about that yesterday,” Murphy said. “You know, they want me to do it. I don’t know.”
He listed the cast members who are interested:
- Emma Roberts
- Billie Lourd
- Lea Michele
- Ariana Grande
- Glen Powell
“I mean, it’s been what, 12 years since Glee went off the air? Sometimes it takes a while,” Murphy 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.”
Lourd’s Yes
Wednesday brought word from Billie Lourd herself that she would welcome a return to the series. She played Chanel #3 on Scream Queens.
“Hell yeah! Scream Queens is everything,” she said when asked about the possibility of a revival. “I wish Scream Queens would come back. It was so much fun. That was the first Ryan thing I ever did. It’d be wild.”
“Chanel #3 is everything to me,” she added.
Brennan’s Reflection
Brennan, who created Scream Queens alongside Murphy and Falchuk, previously told THR that he would “totally” revisit the series and offered thoughts on its abrupt conclusion.
“It was really at the end of network [television] and the rise of streaming,” he said. “A network executive could have been forgiven for being like, ‘The ratings keep going down.’ But they would do this all the time. They’d cancel a show that was getting like a one and then replace it with something that got a point seven, and now they would give their eyeteeth for the ratings we were getting then.”
The Comparison
| Show | Creator | Lead Cast |
|---|---|---|
| Scream Queens | Murphy, Falchuk, Brennan | Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Billie Lourd, Abigail Breslin, Lea Michele |
| American Horror Story | Murphy | Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett |
While both series exist within the same creative universe, their fates could not be more different. Scream Queens ran for just two seasons before it was canceled. Meanwhile, American Horror Story has kept on, currently entering its 13th season.
What Happens Next
The 13th season of American Horror Story premieres Thursday on FX. The “all-star” season will see franchise favorites Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett and more reprise their iconic characters.
When schedules clash with plans, even the best ideas can fall apart. That’s what happened here, and it serves as a reminder of how often timing stands in the way of something that seemed destined to happen. Murphy took the setback and turned it into a temporary detour instead of a death sentence for the idea.
The remarks from Grande, Lourd and Brennan point to an ongoing hunger for more. The open question is whether Murphy can arrange a weekend when all three are available at once.
The fact that Murphy is pushing the crossover further down the timeline implies he thinks the moment will eventually arrive. The announcement brings a hopeful note to fans of both shows, but it also comes with the usual disappointment of waiting for a return that seems destined but never materializes.
The trip that went off the rails is finished. Now the issue is whether Murphy can locate a Saturday and Sunday when all parties have availability.
Source material: “Ryan Murphy Reveals Ariana Grande’s ‘Scream Queens’ Role in ‘AHS’ Season 13 That Never Happened (Exclusive),” The Hollywood Reporter.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.