Everything you thought you knew about American Horror Story: Roanoke is about to change.

Wednesday's (October 19) episode has been hyped for weeks as the turning point for Roanoke, but nobody had any idea just how massive a shift was in the works. Until now.

For the time ever, veteran cast members such as Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson will start playing new characters in the middle of a season (rather than at the beginning of each new season).

"I had to call up Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates. We didn't tell them [the twist] this year," producer Ryan Murphy told E! News.

FX

"So we had them thinking this idea that they were playing one thing through the whole year, and right around the time we started shooting episode four, I called them up and I said, 'Okay, I didn't want to tell you this, but it will be revealed that you're actually something completely different than what the audience thought you were.' And they all loved that challenge.

"Many of them, as you know, have had to do different voices and different accents, and so it was a very energising way to work and it really energised the show and took us in a very different direction.

"Sarah Paulson remarked that it was one of her favourite things that she's gotten to do on the show, because it's such an abrupt shift into something else."

As we've seen so far, Paulson and Bates have technically been a part of Roanoke's reality show-within-a-show as reenactors of the infamous North Carolina haunting.

However, that storyline wrapped up at the end of episode five and a brief teaser only hinted that episode six will follow the reality show's producer (Cheyenne Jackson).

Suzanne Tenner

Not only are we getting a narrative shift, Murphy is bringing back Murder House star Taissa Farmiga and Hotel's Finn Wittrock too.

"Finn Wittrock is coming back soon, playing his most f**ked-up character of all time," the writer hinted. "To the point where he was like, 'This is so crazy that I don't know that I can do it, but I'll do it.'

"And Taissa Farmiga is coming back for the first time ever since Coven, in I think a really, really great part and we love her. We're very excited - she's a part of our world and always will be, and I always wanted her to come back."

For those keeping score, we've also yet to see American Horror Story favourite Matt Bomer this season either…

American Horror Story: Roanoke airs its next terrifying twist tonight (October 19) at 10pm on FX in the US. FOX airs the show in the UK.

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