- "American Horror Story: Delicate" returns on Wednesday.
- Emma Roberts plays Anna, a rising star trying get pregnant. Kim Kardashian plays her publicist.
Fans of "American Horror Story" won't have to wait much longer for the show to return. Season 12, titled "AHS: Delicate," is back on Wednesday after a months-long hiatus.
The season features a number of Ryan Murphy regulars, including Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and Denis O'Hare. But there are some surprising newcomers to the series, too — including Kim Kardashian.
Here's a refresher on what to know about "AHS: Delicate" before it returns.
'AHS: Delicate' is based on a book
In a series first, "AHS: Delicate" is based (at least in part) on a novel: "Delicate Condition" by Danielle Valentine.
Per her website, Valentine writes "scary books for tweens, teens, and adults." "Delicate Condition," released in August 2023, is her latest book. But according to Valentine's site, she's also written an anthology called the "Merciless" series, which the site describes as "'Mean Girls' meets 'The Exorcist,'" and the 2022 novel "How to Survive Your Murder."
Valentine's site offers a plot synopsis of "Delicate Condition," which reads in part: "Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But she's starting to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. And not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her."
In a cover blurb for the thriller, writer Andrea Bartz described it as "the feminist update to 'Rosemary's Baby' we all needed." Valentine told Entertainment Weekly she was flattered by that comparison but was more inspired by the 1979 sci-fi horror movie "Alien."
"It is essentially a horror novel about pregnancy," Valentine told Entertainment Weekly. "It's a novel exploring not just the actual physical gruesomeness of what pregnancy is, but also the medical gaslighting that even modern, very privileged women experience as they're going through their pregnancies and the symptoms that I feel we as a culture still don't talk about for strange reasons."
In another first for "American Horror Story," season 12 is written entirely by one person: actor and playwright Halley Feiffer, who also serves as showrunner. Feiffer previously wrote for another Murphy show, "Impeachment: American Crime Story," among other TV series.
Murphy previously told The Hollywood Reporter that "Delicate" is "ambitious and unlike anything we have ever done" in the long-running franchise.
The 'AHS: Delicate' cast includes a mix of regulars and newcomers like Cara Delevingne, who has a mysterious role
Frequent "AHS" star Emma Roberts leads the main cast as Anna, a rising star with a troubled past who's trying to have both a successful acting career and a child. Kim Kardashian, who's new to the "American Horror Story" ensemble, also has a major role as Siobhan Corbyn, Anna's best friend and publicist.
Murphy previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Feiffer had "written a fun, stylish and ultimately terrifying role" for Kardashian.
Another Murphy newcomer appearing in this season is Cara Delevingne, who has a mysterious role. Anna's husband Dex is played by Matt Czuchry, another new addition to the franchise.
Roberts isn't the only "AHS" mainstay with a role in "Delicate." Denis O'Hare plays Dr. Hill, the fertility doctor who's working with Anna to help get her pregnant. Billie Lourd and her fellow "Apocalypse" star Leslie Grossman also appear as "The Ashleys," a team of crisis PR experts Siobhan enlists to help Anna — except they may also be centuries-old witches, based on episode four's opening flashback sequence.
What's the plot of 'AHS: Delicate'?
So far, "AHS: Delicate" has generally followed the plot of Valentine's novel, with a few changes.
Roberts' Anna is, like in the book, an actor trying to have both a successful career and a child. Also like the book, the season definitely has "Rosemary's Baby" vibes, showing Anna trying desperately to protect herself and her unborn baby from increasingly disturbing threats, including robed, satanic-looking figures.
But the character of Siobhan seems to have been altered slightly. According to Entertainment Weekly, Siobhan is another actor who's far more successful than Anna in the novel. But in the FX show, Siobhan is Anna's new publicist, whom she met while they were both undergoing fertility treatments.
In the first five episodes of the season, we see Anna grow increasingly paranoid amid her attempts to conceive a child and win an Oscar for her breakthrough film "The Auteur." It's unclear what she's imagining and what's actually happening to her, from intruders in her home that no one else can see to fertility doctor appointments that mysteriously switch times in her phone.
It's also unclear who, if anyone, Anna can trust. Her husband Dex (Czuchry) is often unsympathetic, not believing what Anna says about being followed. He's also possibly still hung up on his dead first wife, Adeline — not to mention busy palling around with Sonia Shawcross, an edgy artist who happens to look exactly like Adeline.
Siobhan, meanwhile, ping-pongs between being Anna's protector promising her the world and having a clear agenda of her own, whether or not that involves Anna's welfare.
Meanwhile, Anna is also being followed by two mysterious women who may both be trying to harm her or protect her.
First, there's Ms. Preecher, an older woman who tries to warn Anna about Dr. Hill. Though Hill's nurse Cora writes her off as a crazy person, we learn in episode five that Preecher also gave birth to a baby in 1987 and agreed to give the child up to mysterious figures who promised her success — and that the child was delivered by Dr. Hill, who's pretty clearly working with the shadowy group.
Delevingne plays the other woman who appears to be stalking Anna. She shows up all throughout the season and even poses as a nurse named Ivy doing an ultrasound scan on Anna before her miscarriage, though Anna and Dex later learn that there's no nurse employed at the clinic named Ivy.
Dex's mother, Virginia Harding, has issues of her own. She's suing Dex's father, alleging (to Dex's disbelief) that he was performing satanic rituals on her without her knowledge for years. She also seems to be getting wrapped up in whatever is going on with Anna's baby, thanks to her conversation with Preecher in episode five. Preecher warns Virginia that Anna and Dex are in danger from this mysterious group that's apparently going around promising women — from Mary I of England to Preecher herself — worldly success in exchange for giving up their offspring to the group.
How to watch 'American Horror Story' season 12 part 2
FX had previously confirmed that "AHS: Delicate" would be split into two parts.
Part one premiered on September 20, and the show controversially remained in production through the writers' and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The first five episodes aired weekly, through October. They're all available to stream now on Hulu.
The sixth episode of the season, titled "Opening Night," airs Wednesday, April 3 at 10 p.m. ET on FX and will be available to stream on Hulu the following day. The rest of the 12-episode season will air weekly.