You read that headline correctly: Macaulay Culkin—the Macaulay Culkin, hero of our wasted youth—has joined the cast of American Horror Story’s 10th season. Creator Ryan Murphy shared the news in an Instagram post, which featured a pair of videos touting the names (in the recognizable AHS font) of the forthcoming season’s cast over scenes of a beach, set to Orville Peck’s spooky “Dead Of Night”:
The news comes not even two weeks after Esquire ran a profile of Culkin, who has, by his own telling, carved out a nice life for himself largely free from the public eye—or as removed as he can be for someone who became a household name at the age of 10 thanks to his instantly-iconic role in Home Alone. Over the past 15 years, since the release of Party Monster and Saved!, Culkin has mostly stepped away from acting; he’s not retired, per se, but his appearances in film and television are few and far between. Recently, he guest-starred in an episode of the Hulu series Dollface, opposite his real-life girlfriend, Brenda Song.
All of which is to say it’s fairly surprising to see Culkin signing on for a regular role in a prominent television series—but a pleasant surprise. American Horror Story’s 10th season also features Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters (both of whom sat out the ninth season), along with Kathy Bates, Billie Lourd, Finn Wittrock, Lily Rabe, Adina Porter, Leslie Grossman and Angelica Ross (who made her AHS debut last season). Season 10 will premiere sometime later this year on FX.