American Crime Story: Versace Tells Its Story in Reverse

American Crime Story's next season premieres in 2018.

By Jonathon Dornbush

The next installment in Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story saga, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, will, like its predecessor, focus on the murder at the heart of its real-world inspiration. But whereas The People v. O.J. Simpson followed what happened after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, Versace will look at its titular death in reverse.

Speaking during the Television Critics Association press tour, showrunner Ryan Murphy confirmed that the second season of American Crime Story opens with Versace's murder.

Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace, via EW

"The interesting thing we're doing with this show is we're telling the story backward," showrunner Ryan Murphy said during the Television Critics Association press tour. "The first episode deals with... the literal assassination itself, and then we tell the story in reverse."

FX screened the opening sequence of the show, which follows the death of Versace (Edgar Ramirez) at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) on the steps of the designer's Miami Beach, Florida home — a location Murphy said the production had the opportunity to film at in its effort to pay tribute and stay true to the real world figures being portrayed.

But the show is using its reverse-chronological order to look more than the "why" of this specific murder but rather its larger place in Cunanan's crimes and in America at the time.

Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan via EW

"More than why he was killed, it was why it was allowed to happen. ... We're trying to talk about a crime within a social idea. This was always interesting to us because the idea is Versace, who was the last victim, did not have to die," Murphy said.

"The word assassination has a political overtone. It denoted someone who's taken the life of someone else to make a point," Murphy said of the word choice in the title. "That's exactly what Andrew Cunanan did."

The show will analyze both of those figures and who they came to be in that moment, as well as others in Versace's life, including Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace and Ricky Martin as Antonio D'Amico. The series will air in 2018.

For more on Murphy's work, read IGN's review of the first season of American Crime Story and hear about what's to come in American Horror Story: Cult.

Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @Jmdornbush.

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