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Ask any fan to rank their favorite American Horror Story (AHS) season, and you’re likely to hear lots of different opinions about which is the best—and the most chilling. So it’s fun to hear  Evan Peters talk about which season is his favorite. The anthology series just wrapped up Season 11, AHS: NYC.

Peters has so many memorable roles on AHS 

Each AHS season tells a different story, but sometimes the characters are connected. Many of the same actors return each season in different roles—and Peters has been on nine seasons. Sarah Paulson is the only other cast member with a similar track record.

Evan Peters smiling
Evan Peters | Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

Peters plays one of the memorable villains, Tate Langdon, who debuted on AHS: Murder House (Season one). Fans love Tate, at first, until we get to know him better. We realize he was a high school mass shooter and is now a ghost. But fans still like the troubled teen, especially since his love for Violet is so sweet.

Then, Tate crosses a line. He sexually assaults Violet’s mom, and viewers despise him when she dies after giving birth to their demon baby. Of course, when Violet finds out, the love affair is over.  

Peters goes on to portray a slew of equally insane and evil AHS characters. He’s Kit Walker on AHS: Asylum (season two), Kylie Spencer on AHS: Coven (season three), and Jimmy Darling on AHS: Freak Show (season four). 

Next, Peters played James Patrick March on AHS: Hotel (season five), who fans voted as their favorite Peters character in a Reddit poll. Then, Peters played Rory Monahan and Edward Philippe Mott on AHS: Roanoke (season six). 

On AHS: Cult (season seven), Peters plays seven characters, including cult leaders Kai Anderson, Charles Manson, David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Marshall Applewhite. He also plays Andy Warhol, and his ‘Factory’ crew is portrayed as being cult-like. In an unexpected twist, Peters also makes an appearance as Jesus Christ. 

On AHS: Apocalypse (season eight), Peters plays Mr. Gallant and Jeff Pfister. After skipping AHS: 1984 (season nine), Peters returned as Austin Sommers on AHS: Double Feature (Season 10). 

Peters loved playing Tate—and tells us why Season 1 is his favorite season

In an interview with GQ, Peters said AHS: Murder House (Season 1) is his favorite season—and Tate is his favorite character. “We didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know it was going to be an anthology series … I didn’t know I was going to be playing a different role … I was just happy to have a cool part…”

Peters said he loves the character, Tate, and mentioned during the interview that a line in the character brief said, “You don’t know if he’s going to kiss or kill you.” Peters said, “I thought, huh, that’s weird and interesting…” Tate and Violet both reappear (as ghosts) on the sixth episode of AHS: Apocalypse, “Return to Murder House.”

Viewers get to see them reunite, to possibly spend eternity together when Violet forgives him for all the evil things he did. As it turns out, Tate may have only been a terrifying rapist because the house was evil, not him. The writers gave fans a happy ending to the couple’s dark romance. 

Peters needed a break from playing murderers

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Peters spoke about how exhausting it is to play darker roles, saying, “It’s really mentally draining, and you don’t want to go to those places ever in your life,” he said when talking about why he wasn’t in AHS Season 9. “And so you have to go there for the scenes, and it ends up integrating somehow into your life,” he said. 

Peters’ presence was missed on AHS: 1984, but the show’s co-creator Ryan Murphy said that Peters needed a well-deserved break after portraying some of the most terrifying cult leaders in American history. Referring to AHS: Cult, Murphy said during an interview, “He really suffered while making it, it took him, I don’t know … two years to recover?”

Peters did return for AHS: Double Feature but isn’t in the eleventh season, AHS: NYC. This time it certainly isn’t because of needing a mental health break from playing dark characters since he recently starred as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

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