RuPaul’s Drag Race has won the hearts of the entire globe, with host RuPaul spreading the wings of her iconic series to Thailand, Canada, Holland and the U.K. With RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under confirmed by Stan to be coming later this year, our excitement cannot be contained, so here is everything we know so far about what we will be getting from the show.

It feels quite surreal to think that one of the biggest reality TV shows around the world will be getting an Australian version, which will be watched by the entire globe. When was the last time Aussies were even given that kind of opportunity to be seen by the world? Those few times we wriggled our way into Eurovision? Not good enough, I say.

Thanks to Stan Originals RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, there’s gonna be a huge spotlight on Aussie and Kiwi talent, queer brilliance and most importantly, humour. I cannot wait.

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And because I simply cannot wait, I’ve been consuming every single rumour and nugget of speculation that has surfaced about the series online, which makes me the perfect individual to put together a massive compilation of everything we know so far about the series.

So without further ado, let’s start our engines.

Filming Dates

We know that filming began in Auckland in late January, according to a Daily Mail exclusive that confirmed the presence of RuPaul and Michelle Visage in New Zealand, but now we know when filming wrapped up too.

According to this tweet from Visage, we can see that on Feb 16 she flew home from Auckland, which means that the queens were on set for a short burst of time.

Filming usually lasts four weeks, so it’s probably safe to say that the rumoured date of January 29 being when filming started might be a little off. It’s probably a bit earlier.

And yeah, you’re probably thinking, “don’t the queens refer to every episode as a week?” And the answer is yes, they do, but every ep is usually filmed over 2-3 days depending on whether or not it’s a design challenge or an improv challenge.

Quick bursts of intense filming. That’s showbiz baybee!

The Cast

The official rumoured cast so far includes ten queens. Three from New Zealand and seven from Australia. Actually, there are only three states being represented this year, and they are Victoria, NSW and Western Australia. Maybe next year Brisbane queens?

The cast has been heavily rumoured to be this set of ten queens, especially on Facebook fan site Not Today, Satan, which is barely ever wrong when it comes to casting tea.

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The rumoured New Zealand queens are Anita Wigl’it, Elektra Shock and Kita Mean, who have all taken social media absences, and thus have caused a lot of speculation.

Meanwhile, in Australia, we’ve got Art Simone (Geelong), Coco Jumbo (Sydney), Etcetera Etcetera (Sydney), Jojo Zaho (Newcastle), Karen from Finance (Melbourne), Maxi Shield (Sydney) and Scarlet Adams (Perth).

Yep, unfortunately, iconic Aussie drag queen Felicia Foxx is probably not going to make an appearance on this first season, like we originally thought, but hey, that means she’ll be ready to snatch the crown in season two!

Check out one of the rumoured frontrunners, Art Simone, right here.

So… What About Courtney Act?

As fans of the show will know, Aussie drag queen Courtney Act made a huge impression on Season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and became somewhat of a household name.

To make things more interesting though, she returned from the U.K. to Australia at the same time that filming was about to begin, which has a lot of heads turned.

However, it is unlikely that she will be on the show, and is instead releasing new episodes of her podcast Brenda Call Me with Vanity, who was also rumoured to be on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

Besides, Ru and Courtney aren’t exactly the best of friends, so you can forget that from ever happening. Maybe a quick appearance to talk to the queens, but at the moment it feels like wishful thinking.

Guest Judges

So far the only guest judge that’s basically confirmed for RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under is Rhys Nicholson. Big Brother 2012 winner Ben Norris shared the insider information with Megan Pustetto on the So Dramatic! podcast.

“A lot of people speculating, is it Joel Creasey, Josh Thomas, Tom Ballard…Well, it’s actually Rhys Nicholson,” he said.

Ru sometimes hints at the guest judges well in advance of the show airing, so here is all the evidence you could ever need: a tweet from January 12, 2021. There is no way in hell Ru made this tweet of his own accord.

Going off this bit of information, we can hope that maybe, just maybe, Kylie Minogue will make an appearance in some fashion. Be it via Zoom or in person, she simply has to be apart of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

I mean, Ru seems to be a huge fan.

Aaaand that’s all we’ve got so far. There’s most likely going to be a cast announce very soon, and I simply cannot wait to see the Drag Race cameras shine a light on our Aussie talent.

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