FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show, about a 1950s Florida freak show run by a German (Jessica Lange, naturally), won’t premiere until later this year — but co-creator Ryan Murphy is revealing some more details on what he and the writers have in store for the series’ fourth iteration.

“It was always a concept that Jessica and I talked about really early on,” says Murphy of Freak Show. “It was always her favorite one, which I thought was funny. I’ve had many different versions that I’ve run by her. I just love it. It feels really right. I thought it was going to be light but it’s turning out to be quite terrifyingly dark, which it feels much more like the Asylum season. But look — if you have a character named the Clown Killer, it’s going to be dark.”