Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson and the ‘Coven’ on What Brought Them Back to ‘American Horror Story’ — and If This Is the End

[This story contains spoilers from episodes seven and eight of American Horror Story season 13, “The Baddest Witch Of Them All” and “Hell No.”]

No one in American Horror Story ever really dies… and that’s part of the appeal to returning to the veteran horror franchise for the witches who make up the Coven .

Picking up from a cliffhanger for Sarah Paulson ‘s Supreme witch, Cordelia Goode — seemingly dead from an axe to the head from Evan Peters’ James Patrick March — the seventh episode of the all-star crossover 13th season brought Cordelia back to life in a resurrection scene that marked the long-awaited return of the all-time Supreme — Cordelia’s mother, Fiona Goode, played by Jessica Lange . Related Stories TV Streaming Ratings: 'Toy Story 5' Reaches No. 1 With Disney+ Premiere TV Ryan Murphy Says He'd "Never" Do Another All-Star 'AHS' Season as Big as 13 Again

The mother-daughter reunion brought the arrival of Lange’s third iconic franchise character (Sister Jude is still waiting in the wings), and set up the Coven witches as the women tasked with saving the world in a season that brings major villains back from the dead, and many actors back to the franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the coven — Lange, Paulson, Billie Lourd , Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman — who all say they were easily lured back to the franchise by mastermind Ryan Murphy , and that they were led to believe season 13 could be the last of the franchise. Trick’s on them, however — as Murphy now says he’d like to do the franchise “forever.”

Will season 13 close the Coven chapter, or set their characters up for more AHS ? They may not all be on the same page about that (we’re looking at you, Lady Lange), but below, the close-knit ensemble dives in about what drew them back, what it’s like to return to these fan-favorite characters and the magic of the megahit horror series . “It was like a return to something that had been the beginning,” says Lange.

At the beginning of this season, Ryan Murphy told me you all quickly said yes when he called to ask if you would return for season 13. He said he started with you, Jessica, and that if you had said no, he probably would not have done this all-star season at all. I know you had a condition — to play all four of your AHS characters. Can you talk about why you came back after all these years? ( Note: Lange last played a series regular in season four, and guest starred in season eight. )

JESSICA LANGE ( Laughs .) I’ll preface this by saying that when Ryan wants something, he is the most seductive. He can usually talk you into just about anything.

But when he approached me about this, he was interested, of course, in the character of Constance [from Murder House ], because I think, of the four characters I’ve played, Constance was perhaps his favorite. But I said I would consider doing it if I could play all four of the characters that I had established on the show in those first four seasons, because then I was basically done with [the show].

So [I asked about] the four characters, he said yes, and it kind of went from there.