Is American Horror Story even American Horror Story without Evan Peters? In Season 9, it looks like we’ll all have to find out—because the franchise stalwart has confirmed that he won’t appear in the series’s upcoming chapter. When asked recently if he’ll be involved in the new season, Peters replied without ambiguity: “No, I’m gonna sit a season out.”

For anyone who keeps close tabs on the A.H.S franchise and interviews with its repertory cast, this news might be a blow—but it’s likely not a surprise. Speaking with GQ last year, Peters got candid about the toll of playing such consistently dark characters, saying, “It’s just exhausting. 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.”

A representative for FX did not immediately respond to V.F.’s request for comment regarding Peters’s hiatus from the show next season, but his absence will certainly be felt by fans. Peters is one of the few performers who has appeared in every single season of the series so far, giving life to some of its most memorable characters. He and Sarah Paulson have been a stabilizing presence that, even through lackluster seasons, can still make the series watchable. Although some seasons—like last year’s Apocalypse—have had less Peters than others, it will still be strange to see a chapter without him altogether.

Peters’s ex-fiancée, Emma Roberts, has already been confirmed as part of Season 9’s cast, along with skier and Olympic medalist Gus Kenworthy, who will play her character’s boyfriend. It will be Roberts’s fifth season on the show. Paulson has not been officially confirmed, but has been presumed likely to return—although now is perhaps the time to stop assuming anything’s a given.

American Horror Story has been renewed through Season 10, but after that, its future feels less certain—especially as long-standing cast members are starting to bow out. With Ryan Murphy already ensconced in his new job at Netflix and ratings steadily dwindling season by season, perhaps it’s time to start wondering how many American horror stories we really have left.

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