In an Instagram post on Friday, the megaproducer revealed a teaser for a new series called Grotesquerie (see it below). The post states that it will star Niecy Nash-Betts, who recently won an Emmy for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Courtney B. Vance, and Lesley Manville. It is scheduled to premiere in the fall. Niecy Nash-Betts has previously collaborated with Murphy on multiple projects.
The voice of Nash-Betts appears in the teaser, sounding extremely alarmed about a crime scene: “I don’t know when it started. I can’t put my finger on it. But it’s different now. There’s been a shift. It’s like something’s opening up in the world — a kind of hole to the center of nothingness. What I saw today — they sent shrinks for everyone who worked this crime scene. You think, ‘Well hon, evil has always existed,’ and cite some statistic about how the world’s getting better, less murder, more help, less global horror, never been a better time to be alive, honey.”
With a cracking voice, Nash-Betts—or rather, her character—says, “Come back. It’s not getting better. And I keep needing to hear your answers, because something’s happening around us, and nobody sees but me.”
Murphy has a lengthy history with FX. He is the brains behind American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud, and the upcoming American Sports Story. He also created Nip/Tuck, which was a part of the cabler’s original programming in the early 2000s. In 2018, he agreed to a nine-figure contract with Netflix, but at the end of the streaming service, he left. It’s commonly assumed that he’s returned to 20th Television, his former Netflix home that’s now a part of Disney (although no one at the company has formally announced a new deal).