The American Horror Story got too real with suggestions that Season 7 would follow the 2016 election, Trump, Clinton and all, until Ryan Murphy clarified the political connection as allegorical. Now, Murphy seems to walk back his words yet again, suggesting Trump and Clinton castings are forthcoming.

It all started on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, wherein an admittedly-sauced Murphy revealed that American Horror Story Season 7 would follow “the election we just went through,” with Murphy seemingly suggesting a Donald Trump figure would be cast. It’d be easy to read Murphy’s comments as an approximation of the 2016 election, something Murphy later confirmed to reporters at the Publicists Guild Awards Luncheon:

The themes of American Horror Story have always been allegories. You will not see [Donald] Trump and [Hillary] Clinton as characters on the show.

Case closed! Er … at least it was, until Murphy seemingly told E! News a week later that while Sarah Paulson won’t be fitted for Clinton pantsuits, the 2016 election candidates might indeed appear:

I think people literally think Sarah Paulson is playing Hillary Clinton, and I wanted to clarify that that is not true. Horror Story is always about allegory, so the election is allegory. It’s our jumping off point. It is about the election we just went through and what happened on that night and the fallout of that night, which to many people, from all sides of the camps is a horror story. And you know, that show is always so fun when it’s about the zeitgeist and what we’re doing now.

No [we haven't cast Clinton and Trump], not yet. We’re halfway through the writing and not yet. But it’s really, really fun. It starts on election night is all I’ll say…It’s very scary that night for many people. It’s fun, you will like it. It’s really a season that will have a lot of people interested and I think there’s something for everybody in that season.

Which … again, even if Murphy meant to imply that Season 7 will feature the actual 2016 election (as opposed to a re-imagining), there’s no reason to believe Clinton or Trump would physically appear, or require any casting. As successes like Get Out remind us, there’s plenty of horror to be found in the topical issues of race, gender and bigotry stoked by the election, without needing to incorporate the actual candidates.

We’ll see if Murphy offers any further clarification before shooting starts in June, but what should we expect from a political American Horror Story?

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