Surprise, surprise: it's officially Spring, and we know next to nothing about the top-secret eighth season [1] of American Horror Story [2]. Sure, we've been blessed with a few spare details. A lot of the installment's cast [3] has been announced, we know we're heading into the future [4], and Sarah Paulson is set to wear some kind of dental appliance (?). Yeah. The season's cloak of mystery is more opaque than ever, but creator Ryan Murphy may have dropped a game-changing clue at a recent event.

At an Emmy "For Your Consideration" panel on April 6, Murphy offered a more specific hint [5] about the timing of the season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said the season will take place "18 months from today," and reportedly urged fans to do a little digging. Not one to turn down a challenge, I decided to uncover what I could about Oct. 6 and the days surrounding it, both in the past and the future.

A Nuclear Fallout?

The most obvious answer relates back to a previous bit of information that just recently "leaked." Basically, one AHS fan account noticed that a trademark for American Horror Story: Radioactive [6] had been filed by 20th Century Fox. Ryan Murphy told Entertainment Weekly it was "an interesting idea" [7] that he could neither confirm nor deny. AHS is known for keeping its secrets locked tight, and for occasionally throwing off fans (remember the 26 season six teasers [8]?), so we were determined to take Radioactive with a grain of salt. After all, every other season title has been a noun. "Radioactive" is an adjective. But I digress.

Here's the thing, though: if you look back at the history of Oct. 6, there's one huge event that could relate to the season and could also confirm this "radioactive" storyline. On Oct. 6, 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech advising American families to build nuclear bomb shelters [9]. "There is need for a nationwide understanding of what each level of government, each private organisation, and each citizen can do," he said, "to bring about and maintain the best attainable protection for the civilian population against the major effects of a thermonuclear attack." Roughly one year and one week later marks the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis [10], which marked a brief period in which the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear conflict.

That's a major contender right there: maybe the season will be all about the fallout of a massive nuclear war. Our cast could be survivors; people who have made it through a devastating attack and must try to pick up the pieces in the face of a global tragedy.

An Extraterrestrial Twist?

While there are plenty of historic nuclear events that occurred in October, there's a lot to be said for space as well. Now, to be fair, Murphy told Entertainment Weekly that "space" isn't the theme [11], but that doesn't mean it can't come into play in some form or another. Plus, like, no shade, but when it comes to AHS, Murphy has bent the truth before. I'm not saying we're hopping on a spaceship and heading to the moon in season eight, but I'm saying certain aspects of the space age and advanced space technology could somehow factor in.

In history, Oct. 4 marks the day the "space race" began [12] in 1957. Russia launched "Sputnik," which became the world's first artificial satellite and man-made object to enter Earth's orbit. The United States launched Apollo 7 on Oct. 11, 1968 [13]. These benchmarks are obviously a lot more loosely tied to Murphy's "18 months" hint, but they can still lead down interesting paths. Perhaps we'll finally see alien intelligent life take centre stage (compared to the strange side plot in AHS: Asylum). Maybe it instead marks the hyper advancement of science and technology, and the horrors it inflicts on the human race. After all, satellites and spaceships are only a few mechanical hops away from artificial robot intelligence that aims to turn humans into slaves (we're looking at you, Terminator and I, Robot).

Looking Ahead Instead of Behind

The only other option is to stop looking at the past. After all, Murphy urged us to look into the date Oct. 6, 2019. While past events may offer hints about what mysteries the season might contain, it's possible there's something huge on the horizon that may factor in to the season. So, what's on the books for Oct. 6, 2019? Well, unfortunately, not a lot. But hey, we're going to juice these lemons into the most far-reaching and eye-rolling lemonade possible.

There's already a Carnival cruise on the books [14] that sets sail on Oct. 6, 2019. This could mean that one of my favourite old and unused AHS theories is coming in to play! Imagine what kind of terrors our characters would face if they were stuck on a giant boat from hell with no land in sight. A serial killer? A sea monster? A deathly illness? A shipwreck?! There's plenty to play with, and any of these ideas would make for a pretty gripping season.

According to a site call Tahoe Chamber, there's an Oktoberfest happening [15] in Lake Tahoe that weekend. I mean, what kind of fresh terror could you pair with German food, German beer, craft booths, bouncy castles, pumpkin patches, and face-painting? I'm already trembling.

October 2019 also marks a gubernatorial election in Louisiana [16]. I don't know, friends. Cult really did all the ins and outs of elections, politics, and Donald Trump [17], so that seems like the wrong thing to go for . . . unless Ryan Murphy wants to tackle the age-old reptilian conspiracy theory [18], which suggests that reptilians are living in human skin among us. According to Time, they're "blood-drinking, flesh-eating, shape-shifting extraterrestrial reptilian humanoids with only one objective in their cold-blooded little heads: to enslave the human race." Many believers think a good chunk of today's high-power politicians are reptilian, which is phase one in their plan to take over the world. And, who knows, maybe the Louisiana gubernatorial election is ground zero. So, I mean, that's pretty terrifying.

I think that's about as far as we can get today. Ryan Murphy, if you're reading this, please have mercy. I need to sleep.