FX's 'The Beauty' on Pause as Cast Released
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- FX's "The Beauty" is on pause with no current plans for Season 2, and options on the cast have lapsed as actors move to other projects.
- Evan Peters is filming Season 13 of American Horror Story for FX, while Rebecca Hall is in talks for the female lead in Netflix's Dan Brown adaptation The Secret of Secrets.
- The Beauty Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger in which Peters' character Cooper emerged from a cocoon after a transformation, though his new appearance was not revealed.
- The series had a solid launch in January, especially overseas, but momentum was overshadowed by the debut of Murphy's other FX series Love Story, which 'captured the cultural zeitgeist.'
- The Beauty follows FBI Agents Cooper Madsen and Jordan Bennett investigating a sexually transmitted virus that transforms people into visions of physical perfection with terrifying consequences, and also stars Ashton Kutcher, Anthony Ramos, and Jeremy Pope.
- The series is produced by 20th Television and was a big-budget production with extensive visual effects and shoots across iconic European locations.
Why it matters: The pause of a big-budget Ryan Murphy FX series illustrates how Murphy's own prolific output can cannibalize itself — 'Love Story' eclipsed 'The Beauty's' momentum soon after its January launch. With no Season 2 plans and both leads committed to other projects, the show's expensive body-transformation VFX premise faces an uncertain future despite the built-in recasting potential of its virus premise.
