Becky G, Charlize Theron, and Kelsea Ballerini Join the ‘RuVolution’ as Guest Judges on ‘Drag Race’
A new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is just weeks away — and the guest judges are gaggy. On Thursday, MTV released the first trailer of the new season, revealing a star-studded list of guest judges and new twists to the fan-favorite drag competition.
Among the guest judges are Mexican-American pop star Becky G, actress Charlize Theron, and country singer Kelsea Ballerini, “I Love It” pop duo Icona Pop, Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Sarah Michelle Gellar, journalist Ronan Farrow, among others.
“I’ve been slaying bitches forever,” Gellar says in the trailer; “I was seduced!” adds Theron.
Also making appearances are Jamal Sims, Joel Kim Booster, Law Roach, Mayan Lopez, Isaac Mizrahi, Adam Shankman, Kaia Gerber, and Kyra Sedgwick.
The new season will feature 14 new queens, including five Latina drag queens Geneva Karr, Xunami Muse, Megami, Mirage, and Morphine Love Dion. “This is something big for us, because I believe we are the first DACA queens on the show,” Karr says in the trailer, referring to herself and Muse. Created by former president Barack Obama with a 2012 executive order, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protects undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation and allows them to get work permits.
Rounding out the list of drag queens competing for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar are Amanda Tori Meating, Dawn, Hersii LiqCour-Jeté, Mhi’ya Iman LePaige, Nymphia Wind, Plane Jane, Plasma, Q, and Sapphira Cristál.
Season 16 will also include an immunity twist, and will see the queens “judging each other” in a Rate-a-Queen twist. “If this is just a taste of who you are, I’m ready for a buffet,” teases judge Ross Matthews in the trailer.
RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s premiere will be split into two parts on Jan. 5 and Jan. 12 on MTV. The competition show will be followed by fan-favorite Untucked.
The brilliant Sasha Colby took home the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar and made history as the first queen to win both Miss Continental and Drag Race, the first Polynesian winner, and the fourth consecutive trans person to earn the crown.
“As a trans person, everyone is rooting for people to leave us alone. Let us be free and let us be successful,” Colby told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “The more we flood social media with that instead of Ron DeSantis and all these other politicians, the more we give ourselves power and they don’t.”
Last year saw guest judges such as Ariana Grande and Marren Morris, who apologized for country music’s treatment of LGBTQ people during her episode.