Ryan Murphy teases next series is a culmination of “Nip/Tuck”, “AHS”, and more 'all in one package' (exclusive)

Ryan Murphy teases next series is a culmination of “Nip/Tuck”, “AHS”, and more 'all in one package' (exclusive)

The showrunner tells EW "The Beauty," based on the comics, is the largest show he's ever done.

FX's The Beauty will mark the biggest show Ryan Murphy has ever worked on. It's appropriate, then, that the concept stitches different parts of the showrunner's past work together.

The series is based on the comic books of the same name, which follow two detectives investigating a new sexually transmitted disease that makes those infected beautiful but may also be quietly killing them. Evan PetersJeremy PopeAshton Kutcher, and Anthony Ramos are all aboard to star, though who's playing who is still under wraps.

Related: Ryan Murphy's sci-fi STD show sets killer cast with Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher, more

"I've always written about beauty culture in my work from my very first big thing, which was Nip/Tuck," Murphy tells Entertainment Weekly in an interview about this week's big Grotesquerie episode. "I've also done a lot of body horror in my work, mostly through American Horror Story. I just think that it asks that deep essential question that I always like to ask about anything: What would you do for love? What would you do for beauty? What would you do for money? It has all of those things that I've grappled with in my entire career, all in one package."

<p>FX; Image Comics; Suzanne Tenner/FX</p> 'Nip/Tuck,' 'The Beauty,' 'American Horror Story'

FX; Image Comics; Suzanne Tenner/FX

'Nip/Tuck,' 'The Beauty,' 'American Horror Story'

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Murphy never knew of The Beauty comics until series co-creator Matt Hodgson (Glee, 9-1-1) brought them to his attention, thinking the material would be up his alley. The original story, written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley and published by Image Comics, is a sci-fi procedural centered around detectives Foster and Vaughn. Half of America is infected by this mysterious STD that burns fat, chisels jaws, sculpts muscle, etc. Even more surprising — but perhaps not so — is that the vast majority of the infected intentionally contracted the disease. Foster and Vaughn soon learn that the STD is in fact fatal and may have even been introduced to the populace as part of a secret government plot.

Related: Ryan Murphy promises the big Grotesquerie reveal is just the first of many twists: 'We're not done'

Season 1 of The Beauty retains an 11-episode order at FX with production gearing up to start in 2025.

"I've never done anything this big," Murphy continues. "I've never done anything international except for Eat Pray Love." (Murphy directed the 2010 Julie Roberts-led rom-com.) "I'm casting all the other female parts now, but we're going all over the world next year to make it. It's a very long shoot. It's a big shoot and it's fun. I just think it's that phrase, 'may you live in interesting times.' I think that applies to Grotesquerie. It applies to The Beauty. I'm trying to work out how I feel about all these times."

Grotesquerie, he says, was his response to feeling like we're all living in a grotesque reality from which we cannot wake. The Beauty, he previously mentioned to Variety, is his response to Ozempic culture. "One little shot, and suddenly you’re going to look better and feel better, and all your problems are going to go away," he told the trade. "But what are you really working on? What’s going on with you that you feel you need to do that? Sometimes it is health, sometimes it’s vanity."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.