“A major curveball”: The Celebrity Traitors returns tonight with 3 “surprising” changes; here’s what they mean

The day has finally arrived. Claudia Winkelman is opening the castle doors to welcome 21 stars to the most devious game on TV, The Celebrity Traitors. With a truly eclectic group of well-known guests, and an unparalleled level of paranoia, it’s safe to say the series is set to be one of the most exhilarating yet.

As we prepare for the mind games to begin on Thursday 1 October at 9pm, the rumour mill has spun into overdrive. We’ve unpacked all the facts and behind-the-scenes intel to bring you three surprising changes in this year's season.

Even more contestants and even more drama

There are even more celebrities entering Claudia’s castle this year. And more players means even more chaos. Last year 19 famous faces entered the castle, and this time 21 stars will take on the challenge after a reported last-minute recruitment drive.

The line-up is a showbiz dream. Best friends and comedy duo Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan join the line-up (imagine if one is a Traitor and the other is a Faithful?). There are also Hollywood stars such as actor Michael Sheen and model Jerry Hall. There are some interesting additions, too, such as 23-year-old Game Of Thrones actor Bella Ramsey and the sweetest woman to ever grace the Coronation Street cobbles – Julie Hesmondhalgh.

A larger cast means the traitors will have more opportunity to hide, while also making round table discussions unpredictable. With straight-talking truth-teller Amol Rajan on the cast list, there’ll be no shortage of strong opinions flying around. Remember rugby union player Joe Marler’s ‘Big Dog’ theory last year? What’s certain in 2026 is more contestants mean more unlikely alliances, more confrontation and more suspicion.

Even more Traitors

One of the most exciting rumours for this year’s series is that there’ll be more than three Traitors. Claudia has traditionally shoulder-tapped three players to the turret, but with a bigger number of contestants, we think there’ll be more green cloaks. According to The Sun, almost one in three of the contestants will be Traitors (that’s could be up to seven players), but the BBC hasn’t confirmed this.

A show insider told the newspaper: ‘Last year, the original three Traitors secretly selected by Claudia remained as a trio throughout the competition, which turned out to be a winning approach. But on the follow-up series, all that changes. There’s a thrilling shift in the balance of power. Even though the whole programme is based on skullduggery, nobody thought it would reach these levels.’

The BBC’s director of entertainment, Ed Harvard, also teased that the paranoia is ‘off the scale’ this year. Speaking at the Edinburgh TV festival, he said: ‘I really wanted to step in and go, “no one is actually being murdered”. I don’t want to give too much away, but there are tears in this series. I don’t think that I thought there would be this many surprises in this season… but there are,’ he added. With that level of upset and bloodshed, we reckon there must be more murders.

A major curveball

The show’s producers have promised that this series is completely unpredictable and like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Ed Harvard teased: ‘Things happen that you didn’t think could happen on Traitors and have never been seen before.’

Our prediction? The producers won’t repeat last year’s winning formula. If there are really more traitors in the castle, there’ll need to be a way of keeping enough contestants alive for the game to last the month, and they’ll have to go up against each other. This could mean the introduction of a secret traitor, as in the 2026 civilian series where Fiona Hughes went undercover to don a red cloak to deceive the faithfuls, other traitors and even viewers. And, if it’s truly an incomparable series, our bets are on the first-ever faithful victory.