He’s ba-ack.
Photo: Netflix

Ryan Murphy has an ax to grind. The next season of Monster, following season three’s Psycho inspiration Ed Gein, takes on Lizzie Borden, the woman who was infamously tried and acquitted for the 1892 murder of her father and stepmother. It’s not the first time Murphy has engaged with Borden: Grace Bertrand, played by Lizzie Brocheré, shared Borden’s backstory on American Horror Story: Asylum back in 2012, though that series was set in 1964. Clearly, Borden’s been festering in the twisted mind of Ryan Murphy for a long time.

Below, everything we know about Monster season four.

Lizzie Borden herself will be played by Ella Beatty, daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, who graduated from Juilliard and is best known for replacing Elle Fanning in Appropriate on Broadway. She also previously worked with Murphy in his series Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, playing Truman Capote’s protégé Kerry O’Shea.

She’ll be joined by Charlie Hunnam, who played Ed Gein in season three. He returns as Lizzie’s murdered father Andrew Borden, while her stepmother Abby Borden will be played by Peter Hujar’s Day star Rebecca Hall. The family will be filled out by Billie Lourd as Lizzie’s sister Emma Borden. Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) will play the house’s maid, Bridget Sullivan, who is the only other person in the house on the day of Andrew and Abby’s death. Finally, Jessica Barden (not Borden) will play Lizzie’s friend, and speculated lover, actress Nance O’Neill.

Murphy confirmed to Variety in a profile of Hunnam that the season will also focus on other murderous women throughout history. He specifically name-checked Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer who, while working as a sex worker, murdered seven of her male clients. Wuornos was already the subject of a project called Monster — the Charlize Theron movie of the same name for which she won an Oscar in 2004. Murphy also revealed there would be a focus on the Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Báthory, who, along with her servants, was accused of torturing and killing hundreds of young women in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

The series is currently in production, THR confirmed October 9. The previous seasons were all released in either late September or early October. A new Charlie Hunnam is dropping soon.

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