Kathy Bates to star in third season of 'American Horror Story'

Expect to see more misery in season 3 of FX’s American Horror Story as Oscar winner Kathy Bates will appear in the third outing of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series as a new opponent of star Jessica Lange.

Bates, 64, has been cast as the best friend and eventual enemy of Lange’s character, originally reported by TVLine and confirmed by Entertainment Weekly.

Like her co-star, who won an Emmy for AHS' first season, Bates has cred in the horror department with an Academy Award for her leading turn as psychopathic super-fan Annie Wilkes in the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery. She also appeared with Lange that year in Men Don’t Leave.

Bates has made several recent turns on TV, as the Emmy-nominated lead in NBC’s Harry’s Turn, canceled after two seasons, and in a recurring role for several seasons on The Office.

Lange, also an Oscar winner, will play a different kind of role as a “glamour cat leading lady,” creator Murphy said at a recent press Q&A, according to TVLine.

Bates and Lange will be joining AHS regulars Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga and Frances Conroy, who appeared with Bates in Six Feet Under.

Though major plots and details have been kept under lock and key, Murphy has said season 3 will take place in three modern-day U.S. cities, after previous seasons took place in a haunted California house and a Boston asylum, according to Examiner.

It also will be filmed on locations and be more “historical in nature,” with flashbacks typical of the series, according to EW.

“What we’re doing is more ambitious than what we’ve ever done,” Murphy also told EW.