American Horror Story: 13: What does the latest trailer reveal about ‘Avengers’-style crossover?

The latest trailer for American Horror Story: 13 has offered the clearest look yet at the season bringing characters from across the anthology together.

While the return of characters including Fiona Goode, Marie Laveau, Twisty the Clown and Cordelia Goode was previously announced, the latest footage gives viewers their first extended look at them in action.

Following last month’s teaser, this trailer opens with Jessica Lange’s Elsa Mars introducing a performance as “the greatest show on Earth”, before Evan Peters’ James March warns: “It’s witch-hunting season.”

Who appears in the new American Horror Story: 13 trailer?

Sarah Paulson’s Cordelia then appears to recognise that something significant is approaching. “I feel a harbinger of our doom,” she says, before predicting “so much terrifying and vengeful death… something wicked this way comes”.

Characters from across the anthology appear throughout the trailer, with Lange shown as both Fiona Goode and Constance Langdon alongside Peters’ James March, Paulson’s Cordelia Goode, Bassett’s Marie Laveau and Roberts’ Madison Montgomery.

Lynch is also back as Twisty the Clown, first introduced in Freak Show, while Peters reprises his roles as the Rubber Man from Murder House and Kai Anderson from Cult.

Earlier this year, creator Ryan Murphy confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that the season would involve characters from throughout the franchise.

“Everybody thinks it’s a coven season and it’s not. It’s all the seasons,” Murphy said. “It is like the Avengers. They all come together to defeat the ultimate evil. It’s very fun.”

Why was Jessica Lange’s return so important to American Horror Story: 13?

Murphy has also said the season would not have happened without Lange agreeing to return.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he explained that he initially expected her to decline when he approached her about playing her previous characters again.

He said, “Jessica, after we did the first four seasons, wanted to go off and do different things, which I understood completely. But I reached out to her thinking she would say no, and if she had said no, I probably wouldn’t have done it.”

Season 13 will run for 13 half-hour episodes. In the UK, the first three episodes will arrive on Disney+ on 25 September, followed by three episodes in the second week and then two episodes each week ahead of the finale on 30 October.

American Horror Story: 13 premieres on Disney+ in the UK on 25 September.