There’s all the time some type of extracurricular drama happening within the Drag Race franchise, however the hypothesis, intrigue, befuddlement, and gossip surrounding the forged of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5 has been not like any we’ve seen earlier than. When the brand new forged of queens was ruvealed earlier this month, followers had been shocked to see simply 10 queens within the lineup versus 12. For the final three seasons, Drag Race UK’s forged has consisted of a dozen queens. And whereas the mom sequence has by no means actually had a constant variety of queens from season to season, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15’s forged was the most important but at 16 queens. What’s happening throughout the pond?! That’s a query that each Drag Race YouTuber and podcaster got down to reply.
Some YouTube reveals posited that perhaps the present went with fewer queens in an effort to not rush manufacturing, as has lengthy been rumored to have occurred with UK Season 3 (Mangled Morning with Mera Mangle & Scarlett Syanide). Others — just like the ominously named channel the drama — cited a since-deleted Reddit publish from a bit again from somebody allegedly throughout the Drag Race UK manufacturing. To sum it up: this alleged manufacturing member alleged within the deleted publish that an eleventh queen was certainly a part of filming RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5. During filming, allegations of sexual assault had been made or found (unclear which) and World of Wonder (Drag Race UK’s manufacturing firm) and the BBC (Drag Race UK airs on BBC Three) took motion. According to this publish, nevertheless, BBC and WOW determined to take motion by giving the queen “the choice to be eradicated within the subsequent un-filmed lip sync” as a substitute of publicly disqualifying the queen, as had been the case when a queen was disqualified for comparable causes after filming RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12. This selection was given to the mysterious eleventh queen as a result of, because the Reddit publish claimed, the BBC felt it might be “unreasonably costly” to edit the queen out of the season. Drag Race journalist/sleuth Bussy Queen has a strong explainer for many who need extra particulars.
Additionally, quite a few unverified sources have claimed {that a} twelfth queen was additionally forged however needed to pull out of the season on the final minute, presumably attributable to household causes or perhaps COVID. Is that true? Will we ever know? I don’t know.
While rumors of a twelfth queen are imprecise at greatest, rumors of an eleventh queen solely intensified within the run-up to the Season 5 premiere. In an look on the podcast Drag Her!, Drag Race alum Jackie Cox stated of the rumors (at 58:10), “I do consider that’s true as a result of I bought some texts from a few of my sisters saying that’s true. I don’t know what the accusations are, I don’t know the way it all performs out, however I do consider that there can be one other physique on that stage. I’ve additionally heard that they might edit them out in some way, completely. There undoubtedly was an eleventh queen there with them, however whether or not we’ll see them on this system stays to be seen.” We’d simply have to attend till the season premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5 in an effort to discover out…
… and now that the season premiere is out — SPOILERS — we all know the reality: there was an eleventh queen on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5. However, you’ll not see her on this system. She has been edited out — and this edit is means, far more thorough than the one we noticed in Season 12. In that season, the disqualified queen was nonetheless seen in challenges and on the runway, however their confessional footage was fully scrapped after the allegations got here to mild and their appearances within the Werk Room had been restricted to moments that pushed the bigger narrative ahead. For UK Season 5, this queen has been edited round completely, making a sort of shifting Where’s Waldo? recreation (or Where’s Wally? within the UK). But don’t be fooled: she’s undoubtedly there.
The first time that one thing felt off within the episode was when RuPaul first entered the Werk Room. As all the time occurs in season premieres, the queens divide up into even teams in an effort to hearken to Ru — extra for digital camera blocking than the rest, so we will see all of the queens collectively comfortably in a shot. There’s the primary lineup, together with Cara Melle, Vicki Vivacious, Miss Naomi Carter, Alexis Saint-Pete, Michael Marouli, and Tomara Thomas.
Compare that to the shot of the opposite half: Banksie, Ginger Johnson, Kate Butch, and DeDeLicious.
If you have got a forged of 10, why would they break up up into a gaggle of six and a gaggle of 4? And that shot of the foursome is cropped in means tighter, giving us a knee-up shot versus a full-body. Is somebody standing subsequent to DeDeLicious…?
Yes, there may be. You can see bits of black fur ever so barely popping into the body. Even extra telling is one shot the place you may see a hand with a large black ring protruding of a black, fur-trimmed garment.
The hand belongs to nobody seen within the lineup of queens above.
Later within the episode when the queens collect for a club-themed runway, you may see half of this thriller queen within the lineup. Count them:
There are 10 heads however 11 pairs of legs.
The most you see of this mysterious eleventh queen occurs in the course of the judging. This thriller queen is positioned behind Alexis Saint-Pete and to the proper of Kate Butch (that’s Kate Butch’s proper, our left).
The editors had been extremely fortunate that the digital camera particular person framed up their shot of Alexis Saint-Pete to dam the eleventh queen fully.
So sure, there was an eleventh queen within the forged of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5. As for who that queen is — ? I’ll allow you to Google that your self, for I really feel bizarre about giving publicity to a queen who was presumably edited out of Drag Race for sexual assault — particularly a queen who has but to be confirmed as having been a part of the forged in any respect.
And as for the veracity of the Reddit publish that began the entire rumors, it was half proper. There was an eleventh queen. However there’s been no affirmation of that queen’s id, nor can we really know why they had been edited out of the episode. And that’s one other factor: the thriller poster stated that the BBC thought it was “unreasonably costly” to edit the queen out of the season, however clearly that’s not true. In truth, the editors labored even more durable to take away this queen from the premiere. As for the way lengthy this queen will stay lurking simply off-camera, that is still to be seen. And it’s unclear what the present will do if this thriller queen ever needed to lip sync for her life.
Quasi-SPOILERS for a model of the season that doesn’t exist (?), however the drama’s preliminary clarification of occasions teased that the queen can be disqualified in Episode 2. If that’s the case and the on-air disqualification is something like Willam’s from Season 4 (who was given a DQ for breaking imprecise guidelines, nothing legal!), or when Eureka! was despatched house for an damage in Season 9, then it might doubtless happen after a lip sync between two different queens. That implies that the eleventh queen’s disqualification may pluck proper out of the edit after a completely intact lip sync. Remove that disqualification scene and ADR in a “shantay you each keep” from Ru and transfer alongside. And if the eleventh queen’s solely in two episodes, effectively, that’s quite a bit cheaper than having to re-edit your entire season, which is what occurred with Season 12.
Maybe having the episode out on this planet, one that features fleeting photographs of the thriller queen’s hand and legs and wig and fur trim, will spur World of Wonder or the BBC to make an official assertion of some form about this queen and this edit. We’ll have to attend and see how subsequent week performs out, too. Will we get extra fast photographs of extra mysterious limbs? Or is there a really bizarre, very disagreeable ruveal awaiting us? We’ll have to attend and see how this seems.
Decider has reached out to World of Wonder for remark.
New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5 premiere on Thursdays at 4 p.m. ET on WOW Presents Plus.
