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M. Night Shyamalan looks on, nodding proudly. After disclosing details about his upcoming Election 2016–themed season of American Horror Story on Watch What Happens Live, Ryan Murphy clarified last week that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton would be featured in the season, as it would be more of a horror interpretation of this fall’s events rather than a historical account. “The themes of American Horror Story have always been allegories,” he said at the time. Now, in a reverse-double Shyamalan twist that you probably saw coming if you know Ryan Murphy, he has since explicated himself further, revealing that okay, actually both Trump and Clinton will appear in the season, but they definitely won’t be the show’s focus. “I think people literally think Sarah Paulson is playing Hillary Clinton,” Murphy told E! News. “And I wanted to clarify that that is not true. Horror Story is always about allegory, so the election is allegory. It’s our jumping-off point. It is about the election we just went through and what happened on that night and the fallout of that night, which to many people, from all sides of the camps is a horror story. And you know, that show is always so fun when it’s about the Zeitgeist and what we’re doing now.”



When asked if his Trump or Clinton had been cast, he explained, “No, not yet. We’re halfway through the writing and not yet. But it’s really, really fun. It starts on Election Night is all I’ll say … It’s very scary that night for many people. It’s fun, you will like it. It’s really a season that will have a lot of people interested and I think there’s something for everybody in that season.” All talk of allegory aside, Lady Gaga is going to be perfect as Ivanka, isn’t she?

