Even before 'American Horror Story' season 4 had been confirmed by FX, we'd heard that series lead Jessica Lange would likely make the 2014 season her last. Now that a few details have begun to emerge of the next cycle in Ryan Murphy's horror franchise, Lange has finally gone on the record to confirm her role in season 4 and beyond.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Lange will indeed be present for season 4, though not quite in the capacity to which we've seen her ascend over 'Asylum' and 'Coven,' as Murphy says, "but she’ll have this great juicy part.” Lange herself spoke up about the reasoning behind a season 4 exit, saying:

It ends up being a lot of time during the year being committed to something. I haven’t done that for a long time. It’s like doing a stage play between the rehearsal and the run. This is a 6-month commitment every year. That will be four years in a row. I want to have more time to myself I guess. Once it’s over and I have a full year ahead of me with nothing to do, who knows? It might not have been the best decision. But I think four years doing something is a sufficient amount of time.

Elsewhere of season 4, Murphy had previously confirmed, “It’s not contemporary. It’s either going to shoot in New Orleans or it’s going to shoot in Santa Fe.” The final ‘Coven’ shot will provide a much clearer picture of season 4, in which “Jessica Lange has always wanted to play a Marlene Dietrich figure, and now she gets to.”

What say you? Will you be sad to see a fifth 'American Horror Story' season without Jessica Lange? How would you like to see the horror drama rebrand itself going forward?

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