Ryan Murphy already has a 'fan-favorite' idea for 10th (and maybe final) season of American Horror Story

American Horror Story’s schlocky, slashery season nine has come to a close with AHS 1984’s finale episode “Final Girl.” As is befitting something so utterly ‘80s, its prolific creator is already looking to the future. Ryan Murphy has made the American Horror Story anthology his genre calling card, allowing him to explore whatever witchy whims his heart desires. And now, it seems he already has plans for what comes next in the Americana-drenched franchise...which could be on its last legs.

Speaking with Deadline after last night’s finale, Murphy was coy about what comes next for AHS, but certain that he had things mapped out. “We’re working on an idea for Season 10 that I think people will love because it’s about reuniting fan-favorite actors to come back — because it might be our last season,” Murphy explained. “It’s the last season we have contracted. So, I’ve been quietly reaching out to various people. Some people I haven’t reached out to yet because I was like ‘Do I have a role for them?’ So far, everybody I reached out to said ‘Yes’, so that’s been great.”

Yes, the FX juggernaut may be coming to an end — or heading to a new home, considering the close relationship Murphy has developed with Netflix. “We’re in the middle of negotiations about beyond Season 10,” Murphy said. “We have had conversations about the show going 20 seasons. If [FX Chairman John Landgraf] for some reason said, ‘We don’t want to make this anymore’, would I call up Netflix? Yes. But he’s only ever expressed love and enthusiasm and he wants to keep it going.” So maybe things will work out after all.

But who was Murphy talking about when he said “fan-favorite actors?” Without naming names, the creator said that “the people who helped build this show into what it is, who believed in it from the beginning, have been contacted and are interested. So if you look at the iconography of the first three seasons, you can figure who I’ve gone to and who might be coming back.”

Oh, and don’t expect the 10th season to be in space, no matter what some fans may want. “I’m keeping mum,” Murphy said of the next season’s setting. “It would be hard because it’s called American Horror Story and you’d have to stay within the legal soil limits in order to make that work.” So no American Horror Story: International Waters, either.

Finally, Murphy gave a tiny update on one of his upcoming Netflix series: the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest riff Ratched. The psychological Sarah Paulson-starring horror show will launch sometime next September.