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Evan Peters Will Not Appear in Season 9 of ‘American Horror Story’

After eight seasons, Evan Peters has become an intricate part of American Horror Story. Most fans assumed that there would never come a time where Peters was not involved in the show to some degree. Yet yesterday Peters revealed that season nine will be the first season of the show he will not appear. During an interview at WonderCon, Peters confirmed that he plans to “sit a season out” this upcoming season of the horror anthology. More information about the show’s ninth season, including the show’s theme, has yet to be revealed at this time outside the casting of both Emma Roberts and Gus Kenworthy.

The show will ultimately set its protagonist against a worthy antagonist as always, but this year Peters will not portray the show’s primary villain. While we have all enjoyed seeing the villainous roles that Peters has taken on over the past eight years, one must understand that providing us with these characters can take a toll on anyone. In two separate interviews last year, Peters admitted to GQ that, “It’s really mentally draining, and you don’t want to go to those places ever in your life. And so you have to go there for the scenes, and it ends up integrating it somehow into your life. You’re in traffic and you find yourself screaming and you’re like, ‘What the hell? This isn’t who I am.'” 

While some would consider Peters role in Murder House to be one of his more intense on the show, I find his portrayal of Kai Anderson in Cult the most intense he has played in recent years. Not many scenes that truly shake me to my core these days, but this entire season felt draining in many ways. It made me very grateful that I did not choose to binge watch it. I can only imagine what it was like to play someone like Anderson with the ideals he cherished. This does not lessen his other portrayals on the show, as Tate Langdon was beyond brutal, but when one takes into account the dimensions of those characters along with portraying murderer James March, inspired by real life serial killer H. H. Holmes, could truly mess with someone’s psyche.

Peters touched on this very notion when he admitted that to British GQ Style that he thought he was experiencing “a full-on burnout”. He later stated that he was, “going to take a break, regroup, decompress, get back in touch with what I feel like I want to do. Not that I didn’t want to do any of those roles — they’re exactly what I wanted to do. It was just zero to 100 instantaneously.” The news of Peters not appearing in next season of American Horror Story should come as no surprise, fans will still miss Peters presence and what he has brought to his various characters throughout the years since the show’s creation.

The lack of Peters in season nine does not mean he is not remaining busy. He is currently filming I Am Woman, a film about famed Australian musician Helen Reddy, and will reprise his role of Quicksilver in this year’s upcoming X-Men release Dark Phoenix. Although at this time he is not set to grace our television sets this year, at least we will see Peters on the silver screen this year and in the future. Thanks to Peters wording I remain hopeful that we will see him in future seasons of the hit FX horror anthology and Pose.

Sources: Entertainment Weekly & People