Ryan Murphy has commenced his yearly ritual of making vague assertions about the next season of American Horror Story, knowing that we'll fall for his hype skills every single time, even though he's offering literally no new information to us.

Production is about to commence on season 8 of the show, which will be set 18 months in the future and see the return of Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Katy Bates, Cheyenne Jackson, Billy Eichner, Adina Porter, and Leslie Grossman.

Joan Collins will also join the cast as the grandmother to Peters' character, who's a hairstylist, with Murphy also stating he's "talking" to Angelica Houston.

Indeed, Ryan Murphy has now told Entertainment Weekly that the season will feature even more stars than in the past, which is a major statement for a show which once starred Lady Gaga.

“You will see so many fan favorites return that you’ll feel like it’s The Love Boat,” he said. “It’s a very high concept.”

He had previously hinted that the tone of the next season will be "heightened. It's not necessarily as real and grounded as the past season. We’re sort of getting back to Asylum and Coven. It's that tone. That’s the tone of it."

However, he's now added that the season will have a major twist (which he'd previously teased for Roanoke's meta-approach to the format): "It's a season unlike anything we've done because there's a big hook to it. There's a huge thing that happens in episode five." Start the speculation now.