RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 cast tease ‘backstabbery and twists’

The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 has teased that the new season is “going to be a fan favourite”, full of “twists”, “shade” and “backstabbery”.

Earlier this month, it was announced that a new group of 14 all-singing, all-dancing divas would be sashaying into the werkroom’s sugar walls, ready to serve charisma, uniqueness, nerve, talent and apparently, drama.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the queens made it sound like season 16 will absolutely not be “RuPaul’s Best Friend Race”.

“Get ready for a lot of shade. I don’t want to say backstabbery, I’m trying to think of a cuter word, that’s bad. OK, well, there’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of going for the throat,” revealed Las Vegas queen Mirage.

“There’s a lot of honesty. We’re very honest with each other, about the things that we dislike about each other’s faces and bodies.”

Now, while we’re not condoning body-shaming, we won’t complain if season 16 delivers another iconic “back rolls?!”-style moment.

New York’s self-described ethereal elf goddess Dawn, who has already become an early favourite thanks to their promo and entrance looks alone, also hinted that season 16 could be one of the spiciest seasons since Drag Race‘s early days.

“Rotted, mean, fun,” Dawn said when asked to describe the season, jokingly adding that there will be “tears, apologies, non-apologies, and maybe even a bitch slap or two” to come.

Though it seems that the queens will be bringing all the goop and gaggery themselves, it sounds as though producers will also be shaking things up too, with several twists apparently on the horizon.

Hershii LiqCour-Jeté, who is the drag sister of season fourteen star Kornbread, suggested that the new season is full to the brim with twists, turns and shenanigans.

“They shook us to the left and then shook us back to the right, and then dropped us,” Hershii said.

Megami, also from New York, backed that teaser up, revealing that some of the season’s most-shocking elements are “Drag Race classics that the fans have been asking for”.

That could mean that an All Stars-style scenario might be on the cards, where the top two queens lip-sync for the win and have to give one of the bottom queens the chop.

“Regardless of being on it, this is my favorite show of all time. I am an internet goblin for this show, on Reddit and everything — this is going to be a fan-favorite season,” Megami declared. “The cast is so f***ing amazing. We literally all came out the gate gunning for this prize.

“It’s an intense season, but also probably one of the best Drag Race has ever put on.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race returns to MTV and WOW Presents Plus on Friday 5 January.