Over the course of its first 11 seasons, American Horror Story has explored all things born from nightmares — murder houses, vengeful witch covens, clown-filled freak shows, and more. But in the teaser for its upcoming season, American Horror Story: Delicate, creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy zoom in on a more complex topic: pregnancy.
The preview of the season, which premieres Sept. 20 on FX, is both sterile and transformative. Kim Kardashian stars as a new mother whose anatomy seems to be crossed with that of a mutated spider. It isn’t motherhood specifically that becomes the centerpiece of the theme, but it’s the at times brutal process of creating life. In one scene, an egg falls from a tree, and from it pours dozens of spiders.
Kardashian will lead American Horror Story: Delicate alongside Emma Roberts and Cara Delevingne. The season will also feature appearances from Zachary Quinto, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Odessa A’zion, Billie Lourd, Julie White, Debra Monk, and Denis O’Hare.
Unlike past seasons, like Asylum, Double Feature, Freak Show, and Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Delicate builds its plot around a previously existing text. The season is based on Danielle Valentine’s thriller novel “Delicate Condition,” published earlier this month.
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“The ways that we describe pregnancy—delicate condition, bun in the oven, she’s in a family way—it’s so infantilizing for something that is among the most dangerous, life-changing experiences that a human being can go through,” Valentine told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “I just don’t understand how we haven’t found some way around that. It’s literally the only medical thing that affects every single human being on the planet. And yet we’re trying to make it seem like it’s this niche women’s issue.”
