WMG / American Horror Story: Roanoke

Season 6 will be a sequel/prequel to Coven.

The show is experiencing Continuity Creep, with season 4 tying into season 2, and we've already been told that season 5 will tie to season 1. That leaves Coven as the sole season to not have any connection to another season, while still having the most unresolved plotlines (read: characters who aren't yet dead). It seems logical they'd want to follow-up.

• Words of God has confirmed that the witch is the First Supreme
  • Hotel is also connected to Coven, with the appearance of Queenie, and the mention of her coven and the Supreme.

Season 6 will be set in a Summer Camp

Because a Summer Camp would be classic, with tons of opportunities to reference movies where monsters attack people out in the woods. The returning cast members will be camp counselors who find that the forest and lake within the vicinity of the campgrounds are home to strange monsters that target both them and the children.

• The lake monster will be a shape-shifter with a human form played by Lady Gaga that it uses to lure in the boy campers and...eat them or something. Because...Gaga as a camp counselor would be hard to swallow.
• One of the forest monsters will be a Sasquatch. An unsettlingly silent, intelligent one who abducts the children for a much more elaborate purpose than food.
• Something turns the kids into monsters, like radioactive waste under the camp.
  • Or a Mad Scientist, who is actually one of the counselors.
• The Sasquatch might be against whatever is turning the children into monsters, and the ones he kidnaps he's actually putting them in stasis to return home and saving them.
• A serial killer will appear and have a close connection to his mother as a reference to everyone's favorite Summer Camp associated killer
• All Jossed. It takes place on haunted land that used to house Roanoke colonists.

Season 6 will be set during the aftermath of the American Civil War

And it will feature tall tales of the time being real. A fictionalized Davy Crockett travels the country and encounters such icons as John Henry during his contest with the drilling machine, a young Paul Bunyan when he first meets Babe, and Johnny Appleseed...planting an apple tree. He'll witness Pecos Bill ride the tornado. He'll fight the Red Dwarf of Detroit! And then they are all forced to become an Avengers-style team in order to fight the Devil from Asylum, who is attempting to create an Ant-Christ before Michael in Murder House. But their actions cause reality to warp so everyone remembers their lives differently.

• Jossed.

The Season 6 Teasers and what they could mean

While it has been confirmed that some of them are meant to misdirect us, some of them likely do hint at what'll be in Season 6. So here we go:

• "What's Cooking?": at least one person living in a farmhouse is a cannibal, who prepares their meals by dismembering their victims with a chainsaw. A character could be sendup/tribute to Leatherface.
• "Sunset Stroll": Some characters could be a mother, father, and daughter who are monsters who appear at sunset and wander the fields in search of something.
• "Post Op": various people could subject themselves to horrible, painful craniotomies at the hands of an uncaring, amoral surgeon. Why is unclear of course.
• "Lullaby": an infant inhuman creature is being molded into a killing machine by someone who has it in their home.
• "Descent": trapped human spirits will try to capture people trying to escape danger.
• "Milli Crossing": Lady Gaga's character has a connection to centipedes.
• "The Mist": a monstrous creature, possibly an alien, arrives in a cover of mist before charging forward to attack a target. This seems to happen at some dusty train tracks, where it may first arrive.
• "Wind Chimes": a nurse will decide to go after the person (or thing) that collects the teeth of murdered people.
• "The Shadow": a monster can travel through shadows and kills people that wander into its castle. Possibly a flashback to the past.
• "Antology": there will be a forest where bones are kept for some reason. Bones will be relevant to a character's plot.
• "Bite Sized": Lady Gaga's character is a puppet body controlled by a swarm of spiders and, tying it back to "Milli Crossing", centipedes.
• Not a teaser, but a promotional poster shows the profile of a goat man, possibly a satyr. He could be a character, or plot device, in Season 6.
• "The Lesson": children are part of the plot, perhaps as cultists who worship a supernatural entity that presides in the cornfields.
• "Bathing Beauty": a woman with a freakish mouth for a face will attack someone and/or be killed in a bathroom.
• "Pitch a Fit": a woman, possibly the resident of the farmhouse, kills her enemies/victims with a pitchfork at some point.
• "False Eyelashes": Continuing on the theme of bugs inhabiting a woman.
• "Baby Face": Possibly a Call-Back to Twisty's ruined jaw, may be a creature in the plot.

Season 6 will end on a Christmas episode, and seasonal themes will be important to the plot.

I'm basing this entirely on the fact that the premier date is three or four weeks earlier in the year than any of the previous five seasons, starting on September 14th (other seasons have premiered between October 5th-17th). The only significance I can make of this is that said season finales have usually aired in mid- or (more usually) late-January - the exception being Murder House, which ended on December 21st and included Christmas celebrations in the episode. Assuming another 12- or 13-episode run with similar scheduling, Season 6 will presumably finish in late December. Making a fairly sizable change to the premiere date, after five years of Halloween-ready start dates, feels like that means the end date will be important this time around instead. Hence my theory that Christmas will be an important theme/setting for the season.

Season 6 will be set in a farming community.

Nearly half of the teasers are shown outdoors, and almost all of them are definitely in some sort of farmland. Plus with the heavy use of extraterrestrial imagery (crop circles and one guy being obviously abducted), this Season might be dealing with aliens, either the same ones from Asylum or another group of aliens that rival and/or are unrelated to the previous group aside from MO and possibly race. Many of the other teasers seem to take place in and/or under a large house, possibly a farmhouse that was once owned by a wealthy landowner before it fell into disrepair, and its possibly run by a family of cannibals and/or Serial Killers who are doing it either For Science! and/or sadism. Teasers 7 and 13 may show some of the creatures that were created by either the aliens and/or the human villains; 1, 3, and 20 show that the townspeople are slowly turning into monsters themselves because of the aliens and/or the evil of the human villains starting to infect everyone else like a plague; and 5, 10, and 18 may be hints that the human villains may be under the guise of the community's medical personnel and/or a government research facility underneath the farm. 12 and 24 may indicate the location may have some sort of lake or other large water deposits that was once used by the community and is now contaminated and possibly one reason for the corruption going on in the town, with 12 being less serious and mostly symbolic while 24 is played far more seriously and shows just one of the unpleasant things to happen when people go into the water.

Teasers 4, 16, 17, 19, and 22 are all merely symbolic of the central theme of the Season, in this case being corruption in all its forms. 9 is the only full blown bogus teaser.

• Jossed.

The "story" of Season 6 will be told entirely in flashbacks as detectives try and figure out what happened in the farmhouse

Not necessarily detectives as in police, but they could be private investigators, paranormal investigators filming a TV show, and whatnot. Anyway, the reason all the teasers are so disjointed and have no central theme is because what happened on the farm is a complete mystery but it is one which is highly important for many people, including those who survived the past seasons.

• Jossed. The first half of Season 6 is in mockumentary format, while the second half (so far) is found footage from the doomed production of the mockumentary's sequel.

The story of ?6 is going to be set in the past

Seasons 1, 3 and 5 have all been set in the present day, right? And seasons 2 and 4 were set in the past. Well, odd-numbered seasons are stories set in the present, even-numbered seasons are set in the past.

Also, a lot of the clothing styles and scenes where humans are shown in actual settings look retro, in a sense - such as Lady Gaga being dragged into the water by a merman, which looks like a 50's B-Movie.

• Jossed. Although we see reenactments of events from the past, the main story takes place in the present.

My Roanoke Nightmare isn't the actual subtitle of this season, just the Show Within a Show's title.

I can't be the only person who got this impression, right? Lots of websites are definitely reporting My Roanoke Nightmare to be this season's official subtitle, but I'm not convinced, and here's why:

We don't have an actual title sequence confirming such to be true. Unless it comes straight from Ryan Murphy himself, we shouldn't be quick to assume. The My Roanoke Nightmare title card shows up before every commercial break, not unlike similar (and real) documentary shows with dramatizations of real events. It also looks distinct from the recognizable AHS title sequence — or at least its traditional logo, which appears sans subtitle at the start of "Chapter One".

• Confirmed about the subtitle: It's simply Roanoke, not My Roanoke Nightmare.

Adding onto the above item...

The entire first episode is a Fake-Out Opening, using the Show Within a Show framing device to mislead the audience. Lily Rabe's Shelby, Andre Holland's Matt, and Adina Potter's Lee are decoy protagonists, and the real (or even additional) protagonists are the dramatization actors, which include Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Angela Bassett. I'm predicting a Scream 3-esque situation, where actors recreating a horrific experience end up living it themselves, perhaps alongside the actual people their show is based on.

• Confirmed, mostly. Beginning in episode 6, the dramatization actors join the real Shelby, Matt and Lee in the house to shoot a reality TV series.

Tacking on to the WMG above

Each episode will follow the actors (played by Sarah, Cuba and Angela) as they appear on different Show Within a Show television shows that they've appeared in with occasional glimpses at their actual Hollywood lives.

• Jossed.

Shelby hit Kathy Bates

Or, rather, the character she's playing. Not really much to add, other than the fact that that's who it looked like.

• Confirmed: Pausing as the woman walks away from the crash shows it to very clearly be Kathy Bates.

My Roanoke Nightmare isn't actually a show.

There will be a plot twist, showing that the characters aren't speaking to a film crew, but instead to someone or something else. Alternatively, the characters are dead, and this "show" represents their life flashing before their eyes.

My Roanoke Nightmare will be stop being a framing device at some point in the season...

... and we'll finally get a traditional AHS opening sequence in lieu of My Roanoke Nightmare title cards, denoting that the dramatizations are over and we're moving onto a "real" story happening in the present.

The Roanoke Colonists are ghosts.

In Murder House, Billie Dean Howard said that all 117 Roanoke colonists died in 1590 of unknown causes and became ghosts, then haunted the Natives so brutally, that a tribal elder cast a spell to banish them. Maybe it was only temporary, and now they're back with a vengeance after several centuries. The old lady dressed like a pilgrim walked away after being struck by a car at a speed that undoubtedly would have killed a living human, and ghosts are no stranger to this show. We'll probably learn what killed them in the first place, and we may even learn more about how ghosts work in AHS's universe.

• Confirmed.

Shelby Miller is played in-universe by Billie Dean Howard.

Sarah Paulson's character, the as-yet unnamed actress playing Shelby Miller on My Roanoke Nightmare, looks very similar to one of her other characters, Billie Dean Howard. We learn in the Hotel finale that Billie Dean has a show on Lifetime and that she's had three prime time specials. My Roanoke Nightmare may be one of the specials, or a new one made after she was banned from discussing the Hotel Cortez under threat of vampire-induced death. As stated in the previous WMG, she has some knowledge of Roanoke.

Lady Gaga will play a hillbilly.

Someone the exact opposite of The Countess in terms of sophistication, hygiene, and fashion sense.

• Jossed, kind of? She is playing a forest witch rather than a hillbilly, but she does seem to be rather lacking in the grace and refinement department.
  • For what it's worth, Frances Conroy does play an unsightly hillbilly, where in previous seasons she played characters that were The Fashionista and Proper Ladys.

The hillbillies will turn out to be Good All Along.

They're an Ancient Order of Protectors that guards the area from some form of evil (possibly the Pig Man). They tried to buy the house, now they're trying to scare the Millers out of it for their own good. First they skinned the pig and left it on the doorstep, then they broke into the house and left their video tape of the pig man. However, the rain of teeth and mobs with torches are not their doing. The man with the top of his head cut off at the end of the season premiere was one of their own, mortally wounded.

• Jossed.

The Pig Man is an Eldritch Abomination.

It merely takes the form of a Pig Man, similar to Pennywise. Whatever it is, it killed the Roanoke colonists and utilized their spirits as an extension of its will to attack the Native Americans, who managed to temporarily banish all the ghosts.

• Jossed. He's one of the victims of the colonists' human sacrifice.

The season will feature multiple stories using the interview framing device.

The Roanoke story will finish(possibly on a cliff hanger) in episode 3 and we'll move on to the next story. Could tie into the theory above as the "real" AHS happening after the interview sections are finished,with a cursed studio/production story similar to the poltergeist curse as the "real" one? Gimme bonus points if they transition into this story panning the camera out of some editing software to show Lady Gaga/Evan Peters any of the currently unused stars as the actual protagonist.

• Jossed.

The season will consist of three different four episode arcs.

• Arc 1: My Roanoke Nightmare shows what happened to Matt, Shelby, and Lee. The show attracts attention to the real farmhouse (which will be the same set, of course), which leads to...
• Arc 2: A pastiche of Ghost Hunters and other similar programs goes and begins filming at the farmhouse in order to capitalize on the in-universe success of My Roanoke Nightmare and encounter even more revealing phenomen.
• Arc 3: A group of skeptics try to discredit the horrors of the farmhouse...only to discover the most deadly threats and secrets of all.

The interviews are a cover-up.

What happened to Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding Jr's characters is what really happened, and the Matt, Shelby and Lee talking heads are part of a cover-up for what actually happened.

A sycamore tree will be relevant to the plot.

The song from the teasers is a clue.

The first 5 episodes will each be a tribute to the first 5 seasons of AHS.

Lee's is played in-universe by Ramona Royale

In a similar vein to the "Billie Dean is playing Shelby" WMG above, Lee is being played by Ramona Royale, who is already known to have been an actress in the past.

Matt is played in-universe by OJ Simpson.

Cricket will die.

This would explain his absence from the interviews.

• Confirmed.

The forest spirit is a True Fae.

Of course, if this is in any way true, while the Spirit is agreeing to help Matt and Shelby, this doesn't mean she's on their side.

• Jossed. She's a human witch of Druid and Roman descent, and is probably a ghost during the present story.

The interview portions of the show happen some years before or several years after the actual events depicted in the re-enactment.

The Forest Spirit apparently has time magic of some sort. It's not a stretch to think that to save them from the Butcher, she uses her power to send at least Matt, Lee, and Shelby through time.

If we see The Butcher in the real-world of AHS, she'll be played by Jessica Lange.

• Jossed.

The identity of the Pig Man is...

Edward Philippe Mott. He'll eventually take the pig head off and we'll see that his face is Evan Peters'. This would also explain why Evan Peters is still in the main cast despite not appearing for four episodes: he's been there all along.

• Jossed. Peters plays Mott, but we see in "Chapter Five" that they're separate people.

The Roanoke colonists aren't all ghosts.

Some of them are innocent people driven insane by them and the Pig Man. The insane victims become their servants in the corporeal world, bringing them what they desire.

Matt Bomer will play the patriarch of the Polk clan.

This character is on the run from the law and hasn't appeared yet, but the Polks seem to have some affiliation with the colonists. Lady Gaga was another source of Fanservice last season and now she's playing a filthy, forest-dwelling witch. They may do something similar with Bomer and turn him into a dirty, inbred hillbilly.

• Alternatively, Matt Bomer will play Real!Ambrose White

The Teasers, while not telling the central theme, were meant to represent a hint for what happens in the season

Kind of like how in the Coven teaser, Zoe and Queenie are wearing the uniforms while Madison and Nan are wearing different clothes, hinting that they died. However, the teasers give away really minor things.

• The one with the eye in someone's mouth that gets swallowed hints that the hillbillies make jerky out of a man's leg
• The creepy doll hints that Flora would have a doll that eventually was mutilated.
• It was stated that only one of the teasers was actually relevant to the season's theme.
• Actually, you can see a poster from The Mist promo outside the theater in chapter one.

All but one will die in mysterious circumstances...the last one will die of suicide.

Money's on Shelby.

• Partially confirmed. Shelby committed suicide in episode 8, but three characters remain alive.

Lee or Monet will be the Sole Survivor

With everyone else in the house confirmed as having died in mysterious circumstances, the Sole Survivor will be their suspected murderer. Given that Lee is suspected by the public to be a murderer already and Sidney is actively trying to prove it, he would be all too happy to pin the blame on her. Alternately, Monet may be the survivor and the suspect, which would be ironic considering her words to Lee that they're nothing alike and a former cast-mate having already become infamous for becoming violently Lost in Character.

Matt or Dominic will be the Sole Survivor

• Jossed.

Sidney has even darker intentions than he appears to have

He's the one who will orchestrate at least some of the murders during Return to Roanoke, for both high publicity and also because he wants those cast members dead for a personal reason.

Scáthach is a ghost.

Aside from the fact that she looks the same now as she did in the 17th century, Word of God has stated that she was the first Supreme, and we know from Coven that only one Supreme can be alive at a time. Her not being a ghost would create several huge plots holes.

The live interview with Lana Winters will take place on Halloween.

Which is, as we know, the day when the dead are free to walk the earth. Lee will be confronted by Mason (who we briefly saw as a ghost in "Chapter 6" and maybe even her long lost daughter Emily.

Scáthach died and got better at some point, which allowed for more Supremes

Supremes need to die for more to be made, not unlike Slayers. So Scáthach died of whatever causes but somehow didn't stay dead, which allowed for the line to continue. Either that or she's a very real feeling ghost