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Scream Queens: Everything You Need to Know About Season 2

Get details on the new setting and new cast

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Kaitlin Thomas

Not a lot of people know this, but a long time ago Ryan Murphy sold his soul to the devil and in return he received the unique ability to deliver approximately 1,000 TV shows a year. Now, the quality of said shows was not discussed in the devilish deal, which I can only assume included a cameo by Sarah Paulson, but this is why Glee was great at the outset but terrible at the end, while recent Emmy winner The People v. O.J. Simpson was one of the finest pieces of television in the history of the medium. Somewhere in between the two ends of that wide spectrum is the Fox series Scream Queens.

The horror-comedy, which stars Glee's Lea Michele, original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and not-on-American Horror Story-anymore Emma Roberts, returns for its second season Tuesday, Sept. 20, and even though Nick Jonas and Nick Jonas' hot bod won't be returning, there's plenty of stuff to get excited about.

Of course, there's also plenty of stuff that's confusing. Like the show's new setting, why Hester (Michele) is still hanging around after getting her revenge, and what made John Stamos sign on as a series regular. All will be revealed in due time, but here is everything we know right now.

Scream Queens Is Hester one of the good guys in Season 2?

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Billie Lourd, Emma Roberts and Abigail Breslin, Scream Queens

Michael Becker / FOX


The originals are back: In addition to Michele, Curtis and Roberts, most of the show's original cast is returning for its sophomore season. Keke Palmer is returning as Zayday Williams, Billie Lourd and Abigail Breslin are returning as Chanels Nos. 3 and 5, respectively, and Niecy Nash reprises her role as the hilarious Denise Hemphill. Additionally, the gods were smiling down on us when they decided Glen Powell would be back as Chad Radwell. #blessed

There's an eerie new setting: The show's first season was set on a college campus and offered a spin on the sorority slasher film by featuring a Red Devil terrorizing the the women of Kappa Kappa Tau sorority. In Season 2 the show will take on the terrifying and disturbing world of medicine when it dives into bizarre cases at a hospital with a questionable past. Run by Curtis' Cathy Munsch, formerly the dean of Wallace University -- because once you've run an institution of higher learning (fairly poorly, to be honest) you're apparently qualified to run all major institutions -- the hospital and its history will be the jumping off point for Season 2's overarching mystery.

There's a time jump: The show's first season ended with the Chanels in a mental institution and a mysterious Red Devil looming over Roberts' Chanel Oberlin. When the series returns, three years will have passed. This season, Munsch recruits the Chanels -- whose lives are so bad in the aftermath of last season that they can't even convince anyone to share with them an HBO Go password -- to enroll as medical students and work for her. Apparently no one has to be qualified for anything on this show. Anyway, the Chanels are tasked with following the hospital's doctors, but are "not to speak unless spoken to. And under no circumstances" are they supposed to "tender an opinion." Meanwhile, Keke Palmer's Zayday is actually a medical student who's at the hospital to also assist Dean Munsch.

Hester may have learned her lesson: In the Season 1 finale, Dean Munsch confronted Hester about her secret identity as the Red Devil but was blackmailed into keeping her mouth shut. In Season 2, Hester will still be an outsider, but there could be hope for her yet. "She's changed, but a lot has changed for her," Michele tells TVGuide.com. "When we come back in Season 2, she's no longer in the sorority and she's somewhere else."

And as Michele recently revealed, it may only be a matter of time before her secret is out and she has to convince everyone she's not the murderer. "As the murders start to happen, everyone is obviously thinking that it's Hester again," says Michele. "She's quite adamant that she is not the killer this season, but that she will try and help them figure out who the killer is."

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John Stamos, Scream Queens

Michael Becker / FOX


New kids on the block: Scream Queens is beefing up its roster in Season 2 to make up for the body count of Season 1. Joining the series as new regulars this season are everyone's favorite fictional grandfather John Stamos, Twilight's Taylor Lautner, Glee's James Earl and Emmy winner Kirstie Alley.

John "I've Still Got It" Stamos and Taylor "Please Don't Forget About Me" Lautner join the series as two of the doctors employed by the hospital. Stamos will appear as Dr. Brock Holt, a love interest for Roberts' Chanel who's a little handsy on account that he's had a hand transplant. Hey, we don't have any idea where that hand has been. Meanwhile, Lautner appears as Dr. Cassidy Cascade, a dreamy doctor who doesn't look nearly old enough to have gone to medical school but that probably doesn't matter here. Lastly, Earl will play a character named Candy Striper, while Alley is a devious administrator at the hospital.

The show's guest cast is also stacked this season and includes Jerry O'Connell, Laura Bell Bundy, Colton Haynes, Cecily Strong and Cheri Oteri.

Scream Queens returns for Season 2 Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 9/8c on Fox.