Ryan Murphy Reveals Ariana Grande’s ‘Scream Queens’ Role in ‘AHS’ Season 13 That Never Happened (Exclusive)

Oh, what could’ve been. Ryan Murphy revealed what Ariana Grande‘s role would’ve been if she’d joined the cast of American Horror Story season 13 as originally planned.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday night in New York City ahead of the premiere of AHS: 13, Murphy revealed that Grande was set to reprise her role as Chanel #2 from Scream Queens for the new season of American Horror Story.

The potential crossover would’ve brought the worlds of Murphy’s American Horror Story and Scream Queens together for the first time, but Grande’s touring schedule for her Eternal Sunshine Tour ultimately prevented the appearance.

“It was funny because at one point I was going to have the Scream Queens come on to this season, but Ariana was touring and I couldn’t make it work,” Murphy told THR. “But she was like, ‘I still want to do it! I just can’t be on tour.’ So I was like, ‘All right, let me think of it.'”

Grande played Chanel #2 on Scream Queens, the Fox horror-comedy co-created by Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The series starred Emma Roberts as Chanel #1, Grande as Chanel #2, Billie Lourd as Chanel #3, Abigail Breslin as Chanel #5 and Lea Michele, a group of Kappa Kappa Tau sorority sisters targeted by a killer known as the Red Devil.

Grande’s character was killed off in the first season, and the series was canceled after two seasons.
Murphy said that while Grande’s touring schedule kept the crossover from happening this season, he hasn’t given up on revisiting Scream Queens — and the show’s core cast members are interested in returning.

When asked if he was thinking about reviving Scream Queens, following his recent comments about being open to revisiting Glee, Murphy said, “Yes, so funny, Emma [Roberts] and I were talking about that yesterday. You know, they want me to do it. I don’t know.”

“Emma really wants to do it. I know Billie wants to do it. Lea wants to do it. Ariana wants to do it and Glen [Powell], my favorite of all time,” he said.

Murphy also pointed to Grande’s touring schedule as the reason the Scream Queens crossover didn’t happen this season.

“I mean, it’s been what, 12 years since Glee went off the air? Sometimes it takes a while,” Murphy added. “But it was the tour which I knew. She warned me in advance that it was gonna be really hard to schedule, and the weekend we had to shoot it, she was touring, but I said, ‘OK, I’ll bump it down the road,’ so I haven’t given up. I love her.”

Lourd, who played Chanel #3 on Scream Queens, also told THR Wednesday that she would be interested in returning to the series.

“Hell yeah! Scream Queens is everything,” she said when asked about the possibility of a revival.
“I wish Scream Queens would come back. It was so much fun. That was the first Ryan thing I ever did. It’d be wild,” she added. “Chanel #3 is everything to me.”

Brennan previously told THR that he would “totally” revisit the series and reflected on its premature ending.

“It was really at the end of network [television] and the rise of streaming,” he said. “A network executive could have been forgiven for being like, ‘The ratings keep going down.’ But they would do this all the time. They’d cancel a show that was getting like a one and then replace it with something that got a point seven, and now they would give their eyeteeth for the ratings we were getting then.”

As for Murphy’s latest show, the highly anticipated 13th season of American Horror Story premieres Thursday on FX. The “all-star” season will see franchise favorites Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett and more reprise their iconic characters.