American Crime Story Has Its Second Season Theme

American Crime Story will return for a second season, this time focusing on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The FX team didn’t reveal any details about the series beyond its theme when they announced the show at a Television Critics Association panel earlier Tuesday. That includes casting, although Sarah Paulson and John Travolta have already expressed interest in returning. “The Katrina story, to me, is a literal American crime,” Paulson told Deadline. “It says something about a uniquely American attitude, and I find it incredibly potent.” Hurricane Katrina was the most expensive and seventh-deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. At least 1,245 died in the storm and the flooding which resulted in the 50-some-odd breaches in New Orleans’ hurricane defense system. Much like the O.J. Simpson season, executive producer Brad Simpson (no relation) said that the season would focus on the social aspects of the disaster. “It’ll be about the intensity of what it was like to be on the ground in that pressure cooker,” Simpson said during the panel. “And the bigger crime, it was predictable. Like ‘O.J.,’ it turns a lens back on America and shows some uncomfortable truths about it.” The hope is that, like series creator Ryan Murphy’s other anthology, American Horror Story, that a similar cast returns each season. As long as we get Travolta’s eyebrows and some representation of the below moment, we’re all good.