The first trailer footage shows Sarah Paulson playing Aileen Wuornos. Netflix released the trailer for “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” on August 20, 2026, and it ends on Paulson in character: a jagged blond wig, bleached and thinned eyebrows, and a flat, unreadable expression. The images are real production and promotional stills, not AI-generated or fan-made — set photos of the look had already circulated in December 2025, and the new trailer confirms them in motion.
Key facts
- Trailer release: Netflix released the “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” trailer on August 20, 2026, revealing Sarah Paulson’s transformation into Aileen Wuornos.
- Season lead: Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden; the season is the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix true-crime anthology.
- Premiere: All eight episodes drop on Netflix September 17, 2026.
- Also this month: Paulson returns to “American Horror Story” Season 13 as Cordelia Goode, premiering September 24, 2026 on FX.
Timeline
- December 2025: Set photos of Paulson’s Aileen Wuornos look circulate online.
- August 13, 2026: FX releases a teaser confirming Paulson’s return to “American Horror Story” Season 13.
- August 20, 2026: Netflix releases the “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” trailer showing Paulson as Wuornos.
- September 17, 2026: All eight episodes of “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” premiere on Netflix.
- September 24, 2026: “American Horror Story” Season 13 premieres on FX.
Who was Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos was a real person. She killed multiple men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 while working as a sex worker, and she was executed in 2002. Paulson plays her as the connective figure in “Monster,” the fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology series, which devotes each season to a different true-crime story. This season centers on Lizzie Borden, the New England woman accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892 — a case the show dramatizes, not a documented history lesson. Paulson’s Wuornos appears in the finale in scenes set decades after Borden’s case, part of the show’s device of tracing Borden’s legend forward to later infamous women rather than any real, documented link between the two.
Cast and premiere date
Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden and carries the season as its lead — she and Paulson aren’t new to working together, having starred opposite each other on Broadway in “Appropriate,” the play that won Paulson a Tony Award, before this reunion put them back in the same story. The rest of the cast includes Vicky Krieps, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, Billie Lourd, Joey Pollari and Jessica Barden alongside Paulson. All eight episodes land on Netflix at once on September 17, 2026. In the trailer’s closing exchange, someone tells Paulson’s character that no one really knows what happened the day of the Borden murders; she answers, “Oh, I f***in’ know what happened.”
Fans react to the transformation
The trailer’s reveal set off pushback on social media. Marketing around the role called Paulson’s look “unrecognizable,” but social media users pushed back, saying she was still recognizable under the makeup. They compared her portrayal with Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning 2003 film performance and Lily Rabe’s portrayal of Wuornos in “American Horror Story: Hotel,” and some questioned whether another Wuornos portrayal was needed.
She’s also back for “American Horror Story”
The Wuornos trailer isn’t the only reason Paulson has been visible lately. FX released a teaser on August 13, 2026, confirming she’s returning for “American Horror Story” Season 13 as Cordelia Goode, the character she played in “Coven.” Paulson has appeared in nine of the show’s previous seasons since the anthology series began in 2011. Showrunner Ryan Murphy has described the new season as an “Avengers-style crossover” pulling in elements from the show’s earlier seasons rather than a straight Coven revival, and he’s said Paulson could appear in as many as six or seven roles across the season. FX has not detailed what those roles are.
“American Horror Story” Season 13 premieres Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET on FX, streaming on Hulu. Paulson returns alongside cast members including Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates and Emma Roberts — a lineup that no longer includes Ariana Grande, who had been announced for the season in October 2025 and exited in July 2026 over a scheduling conflict with her “Eternal Sunshine” tour without filming a scene.
The available reporting points to those two projects as the most plausible explanation for the attention ahead of September, but no single new event dated August 22-24, 2026, has been confirmed as the specific reason for the search spike.