This Just In! Kathy Bates Officially Signed For American Horror Story Season 3 (VS. Jessica Lange)

Jessica Lange was dropping hints earlier about a female Oscar-winning actress joining their cast, which only narrowed it down to about fifty women, so that kind of went to our mental back-burner. Now we know!

The article also says she’ll play Lange’s (well, her character, obviously, not Lange herself) best friend who turns into her arch-enemy. OoooooooOOO! In January, Ryan Murphy teased that there would be a female character that’d be the most evil, malignant, vile, dangerous–OK, we’re running out of adjectives here, but we have previous pieces exclusively from EW.com with Ryan where he teases S3 that you can check out linked to here, over here, and here— American Horror Story character he’s created yet. Going up against competition like Constance Langdon, Hadleigh (Ben Harmon’s young mistress, the nastiest, most murderous female ghost in Season One’s “Murder House”), and the possessed version of Sister Mary Eunice, that’s a pretty tall order. We’re looking forward to Murphy meeting and exceeding our expectations as usual on that front.

Could Bates be the one playing the most evil, dangerous bitch to terrorize American Horror Story thus far? He’s said Jessica Lange won’t be playing anyone especially wholesome, but a glamorous performer whose character would be campy, sexy and fun (and always dressed to kill** in full beauty make-up and “blown-out” hair). He’s already done the campy but horrible, sneaky murderous thing with Constance, so now we’re narrowing it down. Our theory is still that the characters are going to play some kind of performers. Either way, we’ll keep you posted on new details as they develop on Season 3 of AHS!

*he hinted at Vera Farminga playing her, but he’s been known to veer wildly when dropping hints; also Farminga was, at the time, still being wooed by Murphy and Co to return, and he said there were no promises of her returning. She’s since been officially signed and on board for S3.

**just metaphorically this time around, at least according to Murphy.