“RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9” cast teases show's congenial era: 'First season of“ RuPaul’s Best Friends Race”'

EW exclusively speaks with the "AS9" cast about "some of the best looks you've ever seen" on the show, while Vanjie promises to terrorize Michelle Visage with more sexy corset-and-panty ensembles.

The cast of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9 done already done had theirses when it comes to a shot at the crown — now, with a new charity twist in play and the return of no eliminations, the cast exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly this year's all-star competition is an evolved version of the Drag Race format that expands the show's scope to ensure that charitable organizations get theirs, too.

Representing one of the smallest casts of queens to ever sashay into the Werk Room, the stakes still couldn't be bigger for Angeria Paris VanMicheals (season 14), Gottmik (season 13), Jorgeous (season 14), Nina West (season 11), Plastique Tiara (season 11), Roxxxy Andrews (season 5, All Stars 2), Shannel (season 1, All Stars 1), and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo (season 10, season 11). Not only are the queens competing for a spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame, they're also vying for a $200,000 investment in one queen's charity of choice.

That begs the question: Is the show fully in its congenial era, after season 16 gleefully unleashed Plane Jane into the universe?

“This one was really happy and chill. It was just different,” Gottmik recalls of the dynamic of the season, which includes no eliminations, similar to the All Stars 7 edition that featured a cast of all prior winners. "Literally we’d be in Untucked and [we'd] get heated up, and they’d be like, 'Time for a game!' And I’d be like, 'Can I say one mean thing?"

Season 1 OG Shannel also confirms “there really isn’t a lot of drama" this season — and it's all for the better in a season that's all about using drag superpowers for good, not evil. "In fact, at one point in time throughout the season, we had said this is the very first season of RuPaul’s Best Friends Race," Shannel continues. "Granted, there has to be pieces of drama, and of course there is, but for the most part, everybody got along kind of well."

While interpersonal drama might be light — though Shannel does confirm she and Vanjie had "a moment" that might make it to air — the queens of All Stars 9 appear to be reaching back into the annals of Drag Race her-story to lean into self-referential (or self-evolving) moments that dramatically build on their already glistening legacies.

Roxxxy jokes that “there’s more to come" of her leaning into being "always an idiot" for our enjoyment. "That’s when it’s magic. Alyssa Edwards? Genius, because she’s just a dum-dum like me. It’s magic when it’s not planned," Roxxxy says — though actual plans for nodding to a certain rhinestone top (and, maybe, Tasha Salad) might lie ahead on All Stars 9.

“Stay tuned," Roxxxy previews, referencing the legendary moment eventual winner Alaska praised her season 5 sister for lending her a shirt on All Stars 2 — and seemingly saved her from elimination as a result. "You never know if I might've brought a second one with me. You never know when you need it," Roxxxy says.

Vanjie teases that she wanted to playfully terrorize judge Michelle Visage with more sexy corset-and-panty ensembles that first landed her in hot water with the longtime panelist on the season 11 runway.

“You know I had to give it to Michelle one... at least a few times. They're going to come out," Vanjie says with a laugh, before thickening the plot further. "Listen, there’s a cryptic message in there. I said I can’t come back with a bunch of them. So, instead of 10, I do four. Well... maybe!"

One thing Vanjie certainly isn't giving any attention on All Stars 9 is romance, after she let herself fall wig-over-heels during her playful on-set romance with season 11's Brooke Lynn Hytes: "I feel like I should’ve won one or two [challenges]. That’s why I came back; I need to win some," she says. "The first time, I was trying to be all cute and find some dick and, you know, have fun. This time, I said I’m not going to get no dick. I’ll get the dick later."

When you're playing for philanthropic organizations, it seems, the queens' good will — and subsequent, sizable donation to charity when the season ends — getting that $200,000 check is the only money shot that matters on All Stars 9.

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9 premieres May 17 on Paramount+. Watch all of EW's exclusive video interviews with the AS9 cast below.

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 9 cast interviews:

Angeria Paris VanMicheals

First appearance: Season 14
Challenge wins: 2
Bottom placements: 2
Final season placement: 3rd place (tied with Bosco and Daya Betty)
On attempting to redeem her Tammie Brown Snatch Game — which ended with RuPaul punishing the entire season 14 cast with a lip-sync duel — on All Stars 9: "I can never get away from this moment,” Angeria says. “This time I chose a character that I knew I could deliver. Last time, I had other choices that kind of didn’t come together, or I wasn’t able to do them because of copyright or whatever. It was fine, I rolled with Tam, because you do jokes or impersonations of people, we always were someone doing all that little s--- to each other, so I was like, what if I do Tammie Brown? It was worth a shot. This time, I felt like, I’m going to pick somebody that I feel comfortable with and truly know that I can deliver. This is All Stars, I feel much better with my improv acting. It was better this time around!"

Gottmik

First appearance: Season 13
Challenge wins: 2
Bottom placements: 0
Final season placement: 3rd (tied with Rosé)
On attempting to replicate her Snatch Game victory as Paris Hilton with a new character on All Stars 9: "This time it made me more nervous because I’m not a celebrity impersonator. Okay, I did so well the first time, what am I going to do? What celebrity could I do even close to that? Who’s obscure but not obscure. It was hard to figure it out," Gottmik admits. "Yes, [my All Stars 9 character] is extremely different than Paris. It couldn’t be further from Paris."

Jorgeous

First appearance: Season 14
Challenge wins: 1
Bottom placements: 5
Final season placement: 6th (tied with DeJa Skye)
On winning the controversial Glamazon Prime design challenge: "Nobody will let me live that down. It’s one of the what the hell, what the f--- moments of the season. Girl, RuPaul was hating the looks that he saw that challenge, so he was like, oh, this sickening bitch has a little attitude, has a little strut in her walk. She won. I won that challenge, and it says on Wikipedia, too, that I won!” Jorgeous explains, rejoicing over Mama Ru wearing a seemingly referential look on the judging panel two seasons later. "I retweeted it and everything, because mama recognizes real. She knows what looks good, and that was one of my proudest moments, seeing her wear a look like that, similar to mine. I said, yes, I did it.”

Nina West

First appearance: Season 11
Challenge wins: 2
Bottom placements: 1
Final season placement: 6th (won Miss Congeniality)
On RuPaul infamously saying "meh" in reaction to her lip-sync against Silky Nutmeg Ganache: "Ru said ‘meh’ like, twice. It was, like, cutting. It might be in the edit, but Silky went, 'What!?' Literally Silky took the words out of my mouth. A lot of people have said to me traveling around the world, 'Oh, you know, you were robbed!' I wouldn’t have wanted any other result," Nina says. "I have lived the most amazing life since my time on Drag Race. I’ve performed with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the entire Muppets. I’ve worked for Disney, proudly. I’ve worked with Weird Al Yankovic. But, all these things have come from my time on the show and having the opportunity to meet people and people seeing me in my most vulnerable [state]."

Plastique Tiara

First appearance: Season 11
Challenge wins: 1
Bottom placements: 2
Final season placement: 8th
On fans and other queens who try to invalidate social media-based performers in the competition: "I think it’s really dumb.... It’s just another location. You don’t define what drag is," states Plastique, who has more than 2 million followers on Instagram and regularly goes viral on TikTok with nearly 12 million followers on the platform. "It's the same thing. You’re still doing drag, just on another platform. I don’t think there should be any differentiation with that. The world is moving into a place where being good on social media is such an important skill to have. That’s your LinkedIn. They’re looking at the numbers. I came on a season where being a social media queen was dubbed as bad because you don’t know how to perform. A true queen knows how to perform. Of course, but the world is moving to a place where you really don’t have to perform anymore. You could just DJ, do deals, transitions all day long. Drag is changing, so get with it or get out."

Roxxxy Andrews

First appearances: Season 5, All Stars 2
Challenge wins: 2 (season 5), 1 (All Stars 2)
Bottom placements: 1 (season 5), 5 (All Stars 2)
Final season placement: Runner-up (tied with Alaska on season 5), 4th (All Stars 2)
On her All Stars 2 track record and the difference you'll see in her on All Stars 9: “You don’t want to let your fans down and if you’ve left a great mark, you want to keep it that way, and you want to end high. But, I don’t feel like I ended high on All Stars 2. I felt like I was in my head about making sure I was received a certain way, my true authentic self, but at the same time, I wasn’t in the game like I was on season 5. Season 5 I was in the game but not worried about how I was acting. In season 2 of All Stars I was worried about my authentic self and not worried so much about the challenges, which is why I wasn’t excelling as much as I could," Roxxxy explains, adding that she's declined invitations to return multiple times since All Stars 2 ended in 2016. "This time I said I’m going balls to the wall, doing it all, being myself, coming to compete, and showing everybody what I still have…. and cry and make regrets!"

Shannel

First appearances: Season 1, All Stars 1
Challenge wins: 0 (season 1), 3 (shared with Chad Michaels on All Stars 1)
Bottom placements: 2 (season 1), 1 (All Stars 1)
Final season placement: 4th (season 1), 3rd (tied with Jujubee on All Stars 1)
On the complicated feelings she has reflecting on telling the season 1 judges she wanted to quit the competition: “Had I known what Drag Race was going to become, I don’t know if I could’ve opted out the way I did. I don’t regret it because I think in life you make the decisions you make because you’re in that moment and you make them, and I’m okay with that. For me, I just felt years later that I’d let Ru down, when you’ve got the No. 1 drag queen in the world…. to welcome you on to their show, and then you opt out, that’s challenging to some degrees to live with. I’ve thought about that for many years. I don’t know, it was a moment, and people remember it. Sometimes bad moments become good moments or memorable moments.”

Vanessa Vanjie Mateo

First appearances: Season 10, season 11
Challenge wins: 0 (season 10), 0 (season 11)
Bottom placements: 1 (season 10), 3 (season 11)
Final season placement: First out (season 10), 5th (season 11)
On not being able to watch her iconic season 10 elimination: “I’m proud of season 10, being there for those two seconds and milking it, and having that exit. That crazy exit. I don’t even watch it. I love the fact that it happened, but I hate watching it. Girl, it’s so cringey. It’s like your parents [being] like, 'Let’s watch this video of you dancing to Britney Spears when you were a baby!'"

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.