Photo: Courtesy of FX.The cult surrounding Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story has reached a fever pitch. With the rumor mill spinning faster than a cat chasing catnip on a feline-wheel and a (ahem) freakishly realistic fan-made trailer, the line between what's true and what's fake is a thin one. Thankfully, Freak Show's core cast held a Comic-Con panel to (kind of) lift the veil off whatever mysteries they could.
According to exeuctive producer Tim Minear, Freak Show is like "Douglas Sirk meets Zodiac." This makes sense considering Zodiac's John Carroll Lynch, the man who played the serial killer, has been cast as Freak Show's main villain. ("He will scare the shit out of you," Minear said.) In addition to Lynch's casting, The Hunger Games' & American Beauty's Wes Bentley was cast as Katy Bates' tormentor while All My Children's Finn Wittrock's just-announced role remains unknown.
As for the rest of the cast, we now know that Bates will play Ethel Darling, with Evan Peters as her son. Jimmy. Angela Bassett's character, Desiree Dupree, is married to Darling's ex-husband, the freak show's strongman named Wendell del Toredo (played by Michael Chiklis). Jessica Lange will play Elsa Mars, the 1950s Jupiter, FL freak show owner. Sarah Paulson's two-headed Bette and Dot is old news, but Emma Robert's character, Maggie, isn't. She's a woman; freak status TBA. (Five bucks she's a chain smoker.)
Whether Ryan Murphy actually granted Neil Patrick Harris his wish to join the freaks is, however, a complete and total mystery. (Liberty Voice)