'American Horror Story: Coven' Plot Revealed: Kathy Bates And Angela Bassett To Play Rivals, Photos Released

American Horror Story: Coven is set to premiere Oct. 9 and FX has just released the first photos of new cast members Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett, who play legendary rivals in the third season of the horror show.

American Horror Story, an anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, will focus on witches during its third season. The rivalry between Bates and Bassett is set in 1830s New Orleans.

Bates plays Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a terrible woman who uses the blood of her slaves as wrinkle cream, according to EW, and must go up against Bassett’s Marie Laveau, a voodoo queen.

“The history of LaLaurie and the history of the voodoo witches and the Salem witches are entangled throughout the ages,” executive producer Tim Minear revealed to EW.

Returning actors, Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson play an estranged mother and daughter pair who are Salem witches. Fiona (Lange) reunites with her daughter Cordelia (Paulson) in 1970s New Orleans to protect their school for witches, Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, from threats of rival voodoo witches and other forces.

“There’s sort of two formidable clans of witches in New Orleans. The voodoo witches were there first, and the Salem witches fled to the South from the persecution of the North, and these two factions are ancient enemies,” Minear said.

The school only has four pupils: new cast members Emma Roberts and Gabourey Sidibe join season one American Horror Story vets Jamie Brewer and Taissa Farmiga to portray the group of young witches. Also on board as a Tulane frat boy who courts Farmiga’s character, Zoe, is Evan Peters, who has appeared in both previous seasons of the series, and also happens to be dating Roberts.

The plot of the witches’ academy takes place in the 1970s, but the rivalry between Bates and Bassett is set in 1830s New Orleans. Bates plays Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a terrible woman who uses the blood of her slaves as wrinkle cream, according to EW, and must go up against Bassett’s Marie Laveau, a voodoo queen.

“The history of LaLaurie and the history of the voodoo witches and the Salem witches are entangled throughout the ages," Minear revealed.

At a press conference for the Television Critics Association in August, Minear told reporters that this season of American Horror Story will focus on oppression.

“Within that idea, the idea of minority groups going after each other and doing the work of the larger culture for the larger culture [will be explored]. While there is a strong feminist theme that runs throughout Coven this year, there are also themes of race, oppression and there is a very strong theme of family, especially mothers and daughters,” Minear said.

American Horror Story: Coven premieres Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. on FX.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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