Jessica Lange is returning to take on a dramatically re-imagined "American Horror Story," and series writer Tim Minear is offering a few hints of what's to come.

Season 2 of the FX series is set at an East Coast insane asylum during the 1960s, with Lange and other returning cast members from Season 1 stepping into new roles.

Last season, Lange played the deliciously twisted Constance Langdon, a role that earned her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award. But don't expect a rehash of Constance for her new role.

"She's not playing this kind of ersatz Tennessee Williams character this time," Minear ("Angel," "Firefly") told MTV News. "She's playing something that's a little more East Coast, a little more patrician.

"She's playing a nun. She's playing an administrator of a facility. It's different. In this instance, she's a bride of Christ."

Minear saw the new direction of "American Horror Story's" new season as a necessary and invigorating step.

"I mean, the truth is, when I first met with [creators] Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk about the show, I came in, I read the pilot script, and I'm like: 'OK guys, this is all very well and good -- I don't know how you make this into a TV show. I don't know how you sustain this,'" Minear explained. "And Ryan immediately had the answer, and that was, 'Oh, the way we sustain it is by the end of the season, we have killed off every character.' And I'm like, 'I'm in!' And then you revamp it.

"Basically, in Season 2, you have a whole new story, a whole new location, a whole new time frame. You just do something different."

Lange was recently nominated during the 2012 Airlock Alpha Portal Awards for Best Supporting Actress/Television. See our story here.

Production on Season 2 kicks off in late July for a mid-October premiere.

In addition to Lange, Zachary Quinto, Adam Levine, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Evan Peters are also returning for new roles.