From Lily Tomlin in season three to John Waters in season seven, no reality show attracts better talent or gets celebrities more hyped for a guest judge appearance than RuPaul’s Drag Race. As the show has gone on, it has been able to attract bigger and brighter stars and get them more and more involved: Who can forget Lady Gaga breaking out her drag-king alter ego “Ronnie†and showing up and out for Untucked in the season-nine premiere? Before season 12 premieres on VH1 on February 28, the official Drag Race Twitter has released a trailer for the “Red, White, and Ruâ€â€“themed season, and announced all of the celebrity guest judges. We’ve listed them below, in order of increasing “What?â€
First up, Daniel Franzese and Jonathan Bennett, of original Mean Girls fame. Bennett tends to pop up at any and every opportunity for publicity, both are gay celebrities, and now they’ve got a new Mean Girls IP to promote.
Winnie Harlow, who also rose to fame on a runway-centric reality series.
Rachel Bloom, because campy comedians love Drag Race. Look at how hard she’s selling it.
Leslie Jones is probably Twitter’s No. 1 Drag Race fan, second only to …
… Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose allegiance-pledging to the drag has already pissed off conservatives, of course.
Chaka Khan, an established friend of Ru.
Legendary Swedish pop star Robyn, whose fandom maps perfectly onto Drag Race fandom. The Jujubee vs. Raven “Dancing on My Own†lip sync from All-Stars 1 is one of the few redeemable moments from that season. It’s canon.
Normani on Drag Race: brilliant. Inspired. Perfect.
Daisy Ridley, making moves post-Star Wars. Daisy on Drag Race isn’t surprising to anyone who’s heard her episode of My Dad Wrote a Porno.
Ever since the switch to VH1, Drag Race tends to start its seasons off with a major pop-star guest appearance in the first episode. Nicki Minaj is the best drag queen in the business, and the All Stars 3 “Anaconda†lip sync is one of the greatest of all time, Nicki is super high-profile but a perfect queen for an elevated episode.
Sure, he’s a men’s fashion icon. Sure, he’s not immune to a thirsty guest appearance on shows here or there. And yet: Jeff Goldblum? What? Really can’t wait to hear shade thrown in that indelible rambling voice of his.
Thandie Newton has a new season of Westworld to promote, and she’s ready to slay the children as divine payback for that horrific Westworld parody from season ten.
Seeing as The View is Drag Race’s direct competition for most popular reality show about a bunch of fighting queens, we’re thrilled that Whoopi Goldberg is setting aside that rivalry to grace the guest judge’s panel. What a good get!
Olivia Munn?