"It’s darker than Coven; it feels very unique […] It feels like a Douglas Sirk movie; it’s very 1952 presentational and then the horror is an unexpected jab. As opposed to last year, which was crazy camera work and comedy. This year feels different. The special-ability cast that we have is amazing and I feel so thrilled because for so many of them, it was their dream to be actors and they didn’t have any opportunities. There’s a great community. They feel part of something perhaps for the first time in their life and that’s an amazing thing that I was really emotional about when I was directing them." – American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter of the upcoming new season, subtitled "Freak Show."

Angela Bassett’s character has 3 breasts, Kathy Bates’ has a beard, and Sarah Paulson’s has 2 heads, we also learn.

THR also got the exclusive on the new season’s first stupendous poster, which is embedded above, as you can see, featuring its key cast, in character. And what an amazing cast it is for any single TV show to have!

2 weeks ago, it was announced that Patti LaBelle had joined the cast of "American Horror Story: Freak Show," in a recurring role, playing the mother of Gabourey Sidibe’s character – a character we’ve now learned will be quite opposite to the character she played last season; Next season, in "Freak Show," Sidibe will play a well-off, impeccably-dressed art school graduate who comes back to town to deal with a family matter.

LaBelle, as her mother, will be a local townsperson who begins to unravel the murderous secrets of "Twisty the clown killer."

LaBelle joins the returning Sidibe, as well as Angela Bassett, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Frances Conroy and Kathy Bates, who are all joined by newcomers to the group, Michael Chiklis and Wes Bentley.

Set in Jupiter, Florida, in 1950, "Freak Show" finds Lange playing a German ex-pat who is managing one of the last freak shows in the USA. Her group of freak show performers include Bassett along with Bates, Paulson, Peters, and Conroy – all acts whom Lange’s character has rescued, and who will do anything to make sure that their business sticks around.

And maybe of most interest to readers of this blog, Angela Bassett, who made her "American Horror Story" debut last season (in "Coven") will play a character named Desiree Dupre in "Freak Show." Dupre will be married to a man called Wendell del Tolito, who’ll be played by Michael Chiklis (his first time as a member of the franchise’s cast). And as was the case last season, in "Coven," characters played by Bassett and Kathy Bates will continue to be at war with one another, because, in "Freak Show," Bates character, Effil Darling, will be del Tolito’s ex-wife. So the new wife (Bassett) and the ex-wife (Bates) aren’t exactly going to be chummy with one another.

The rest of the character names, and the actors playing them, follows:

– Jessica Lange is playing Elsa Mars
– Emma Roberts is playing Maggie
– Sarah Paulson is playing Bette and Dot Tattler
– Evan Peters is playing Jimmy Darling

Peters’ character is the son of Chiklis’ character, by the way. The son he had with his ex-wife, played by Bates. Bassett’s character will be his stepmother.

The hit show received a total of 17 Primetime Emmy nominations this year, and won 2 (Lange and Bates).

Season 4 debuts Wednesday, October 8 at 10 PM ET/PT.

FX has released another teaser for the upcoming season, which is embedded below: