American Horror Story took a hit this week when it was announced that Evan Peters would not be returning for the upcoming season. During an interview with Extra at Wondercon, Evan Peters was asked if he was involved in the upcoming season, to which he replied, “No, I’m gonna sit a season out.”

It’s not entirely surprising that he’s taking a break. In an interview with GQ last year, he had previously stated that filming the show was taking its toll.

“It’s just exhausting. It’s really mentally draining, and you don’t want to go to those places ever in your life, and so you have to go there for the scenes, and it ends up integrating it somehow into your life. You’re in traffic and you find yourself screaming and you’re like, What the hell? This isn’t who I am.”

Evan Peters has been a long-standing staple of American Horror Story since the very beginning, and is the only actor to be a series regular for all eight seasons. During his run his acting ability has grown by leaps and bounds, creating an acting powerhouse that can be almost unrecognizable from season to season. So, the question is, can American Horror Story stand to lose him?

Fans were dismayed when Jessica Lange left the show after Season 4’s Freak Show, and ratings and viewership have dropped ever since. The latest season, Apocalypse, had the worst viewership in the history of the show, with the worst premiere viewership and worst season finale viewership. Recently with the casting of Olympic Gold Medalist Gus Kenworthy, Ryan Murphy has been accused by fans for picking beauty over talent and having a lack of diversity within the cast.

With the show already being renewed for seasons 9 and 10, we won’t be seeing any cancellations for a while; but will the loss of Evan Peters be the beginning of the end for this long running show?

Watch this space.

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