Worst Nightmare: Evan Peters Is Not Returning to ‘American Horror Story’ for the First Time Ever

Someone call Madison Montgomery, because we need her to cast a spell on Evan Peters and change his mind about returning for American Horror Story season nine.

The AHS vet and Ryan Murphy favorite recently confirmed to Extra (video of the interview here) that he won’t be returning to the beloved anthology series for the first time since the show began in 2011. 

But it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise for fans. Recently, Peters sat down with GQ Style to talk about the exhaustion of AHS.

“I think it was a full-on burnout,” the Dark Phoenix actor said. “I’m going to take a break, regroup, decompress, get back in touch with what I feel like I want to do. Not that I didn’t want to do any of those roles—they’re exactly what I wanted to do. It was just zero to 100 instantaneously. I want to play music.” (Will the album feature a cameo from the Rubber Man? We’re so in.)

Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and AHS alum (and Peters’s recent ex-girlfriend) Emma Roberts are both confirmed for season nine, and will play love interests in the next installment. Though there’s been zero clue as to what the next season will be about, fans have theorized that it may be out of this world, literally. 

Murphy also hinted at the return of another AHS favorite from Apocalypse: Cody Fern. In November, show creator Murphy posted a photo of Fern, along with AHS alum Finn Wittrock (Dandy Mott from AHS: Freak Show) and Darren Criss (who guest-starred in two episodes of AHS: Hotel), with the caption “Cooking up something good for these three…”Could Fern be back as Langdon in another AHS crossover?

Or it could be a completely new show altogether, since Murphy inked a deal with Netflix in February to develop new movies and TV shows for the streaming giant.

Whatever the case, we’ll be mourning the absence of Peters, at least until the Dandy vs. Antichrist showdown makes us forget everything we thought we knew about the AHS universe.