Drag Race just announced its first-ever spin-off in Africa – and casting will begin in 2025
Drag Race South Africa has been confirmed (BBC)
RuPaul’s Drag Race has announced its first-ever spin-off based in Africa – Drag Race South Africa – and we’re already living.
Over fifteen years after the first ever season of RuPaul’s Drag Race made it to air, there have now been over fifteen international spinoffs of the franchise – excluding the Vs. the World franchises, Global All Stars and the regular All Stars iterations.
And RuPaul isn’t slowing down, with Drag Race‘s newest version coming to the continent of Africa for the first time.
“Start your engines, South Africa,” a post from Drag Race streaming service WOW Presents Plus read on X.
“Drag Race South Africa has officially been greenlit by [World of Wonder] and will premiere exclusively on [WOW Presents Plus] WORLDWIDE!
“Casting for Drag Race South Africa begins in 2025. Stay tuned, racers!”
Start your engines, South Africa! 🇿🇦👑
— WOW Presents Plus (@wowpresentsplus) October 20, 2024
Drag Race South Africa has officially been greenlit by @worldofwonder and will premiere exclusively on @wowpresentsplus WORLDWIDE!
👀 Casting for Drag Race South Africa begins in 2025. Stay tuned, racers! pic.twitter.com/u4XAeTeiEZ
The announcement – which makes Antarctica now the only continent without a Drag Race spinoff – follows the first ever season of Global All Stars; the first truly international spinoff of the franchise, with 12 queens each representing a franchise from around the world.
GAS followed two seasons of UK Vs. the World and two seasons of Canada Vs. The World, which featured international queens, but a varying number of competitors per nation.
Excluding GAS and the Vs the World spinoffs, there are now, including Drag Race South Africa, over fifteen international versions of Drag Race; its first was Drag Race Thailand in 2018, followed by the first RuPaul fronted spinoff, Drag Race UK, in 2019.
Canada’s Drag Race premiered in 2020, hosted by former RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist Brooke Lynn Hytes, with instalments in the Netherlands, Down Under (Australia and New Zealand), Spain, Italy, France, the Philippines, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil and Germany (which also featured Austrian and Swiss queens) following.
Global All Stars is set to crown a winner on Friday (25 October), with Alyssa Edwards, Kitty Scott-Claus, Kween Kong and Nehellenia (from the flagship franchise and UK, Down Under and Italia) franchises respectively, in the top four.
All current Drag Race content is available to stream on WOW Presents Plus.
