Ashton Kutcher Marks TV Return With Ryan Murphy’s New Show The Beauty

Ashton Kutcher is marking his return to TV with Ryan Murphy‘s upcoming FX series The Beauty, based on a comic about an STD that promises physical perfection.

Multiple outlets reported on Monday, September 30, that FX gave The Beauty a series order of 11 episodes. The cast includes Kutcher, 46, Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope. According to Deadline, the female lead has yet to be cast. Peters, 37, is likely set to be the male lead while Kutcher will presumably play a tech billionaire on the show.

The Beauty is based on the Image Comics series of the same name by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. While the exact plot and character details for the show haven’t been released, the comic book description stated, “Modern society is obsessed with outward beauty. What if there was a way to guarantee you could become more and more beautiful every day? What if it was a sexually transmitted disease? In the world of The Beauty, physical perfection is attainable. The vast majority of the population has taken advantage of it, but Detectives Foster and Vaughn will soon discover it comes at a terrible price.”

Kutcher’s casting on The Beauty marks his first substantial TV role in four years. He previously starred on Netflix’s The Ranch from 2016 to 2020 before stepping away from the small screen. He made an appearance as himself on The Bachelorette in 2017 and The Boys in 2022. Kutcher also reprised his role as Kelso for one episode of the sequel series of That ’70s Show titled That ’90s Show.

Peters, meanwhile, has often collaborated with Murphy after his breakout role on season 1 of American Horror Story. The actor went on to appear in eight more seasons of the show — and even received a producer credit for American Horror Story: Double Feature. He also starred in the first season of Murphy’s FX series Pose as well as Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which earned Peters a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination.

After filming Monster, Peters prioritized his mental health by choosing different projects.

“I’m going to take a little break from darker roles and explore the light,” Peters told Variety in December 2022. “It would be interesting to me to play something that is a little closer to home, a little more mundane and to explore the details of those kinds of experiences.”

One month prior, Peters recalled the mindset that came with playing the infamous serial killer.

“Doing the role, I wanted to give it 120 percent the whole way through, so I brought in a lot of darkness and negativity,” he explained on a panel. “It was just having that end goal in sight, knowing when we were going to wrap and finally being able to breathe and let it go and say, ‘OK, now it’s time to bring in the joy and the lightness and watch comedies and romances and go back to St. Louis and see my family and friends and watch Step Brothers.”