Jessica Lange has probably said farewell to American Horror Story for good

As much as American Horror Story fans might wish otherwise, it’s time to accept the truth: Jessica Lange isn’t coming back to FX’s anthology series again.

Prepare your emotions, American Horror Story fans. The queen herself, a.k.a. the great Jessica Lange, has spoken: She’s not coming back to the show again.

This probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise to AHS enthusiasts, if we’re honest. Lange hasn’t been part of the man AHS cast since Season 4’s Freak Show, and though she returned for Season 9’s Apocalypse it was for a very specific reason. She reprised the role of Constance Langdon, the very first character she ever created for AHS, and gave closure to her story over the course of the two episodes she appeared in. Hardly the heavy lift of her initial years on the show, as well as a role that was obviously near and dear to her heart.

““I don’t think so,” she said in interview with The Wrap held earlier this year, discussing the possibility of another return and her Emmy nomination for her guest spot on Apocalypse.

"“I did this because it was recreating Constance, which was– for me, it was a very important time when I did that first season, Murder House.” I don’t think I would want to start from scratch and create a character,” she continued. “And also I think a lot of the actors that I was working with, people that I really love working with, like Sarah [Paulson] or Frances [Conroy] or Kathy [Bates]– I don’t know who’s in this new season, but I don’t think it would be the same.”"

Lange is a Tony, Emmy and Oscar-winning actress, but her decision to star in Murder House back in 2011 revitalized her career, introducing her to a legion of new – and often much younger – fans. Despite the series’ ensemble feel, she was the show’s de facto lead, playing Sister Jude in Asylum, Fiona Goode in Coven and Elsa Mars in Freak Show, along with taking on the role of Constance twice.

And she’s not wrong – the cast of AHS looks very different now than it did when Lange first came on board. Early season mainstays like Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe have largely moved on to other projects, and fresh faces are now getting murdered on the regular on AHS. In many ways, AHS: Apocalypse feels as though it was the end of an era and new series 1984 will be an entirely different beast.

We’ll have to see how that goes.

But, simply because Lange appears to be uninterested in returning to the world of American Horror Story, that doesn’t mean she’s done working with AHS creator Ryan Murphy. She starred in the first season of his Feud anthology, playing the titular Joan Crawford in the season subtitled Bette and Joan. Lange has a role in Murphy’s Netflix streamer The Politician, and he’s apparently working on some sort of project about classic film icon Marlene Dietrich with the actress in mind.

But the idea of her never delivering another iconic AHS line again still kind of feels like a stab to the heart.

American Horror Story’s tenth season, subtitled 1984, is airing Wednesdays on FX.