Six Big Changes Coming to 'The Traitors' for Season 2

The Traitors Season 2

When Season 1 of the U.S. version of The Traitors dropped on Peacock last January, it became an instant hit for the streamer. The strategy competition, loosely based on the party game mafia, pitted 10 reality TV legends against 10 newbies in a souped-up murder mystery for $250,000. One by one the contestants were either murdered or banished until, ultimately, Survivor alum Cirie Fields fleeced two naive rookies out of the cash.

Now, one year later, The Traitors is back for Season 2 and a whole new cast of players have been flown to the Scottish highlands to lie, cheat, steal and murder (muhahahaha) their way to the money. While the contestants may have watched Season 1 (with the over-achieving members of the cast delving into the international versions of the show), the show's producers say that may not actually be that helpful. Why? Because the new season has some big changes in store for the players. Prior to Season 2, Parade had the opportunity to sit down with Season 2's producers Mike Cotton, Toni Ireland and Sam Rees-Jones on location to discuss what they'd learned from Season 1 and what new obstacles may be in store for players this season. Turns out, they've been paying more attention to fans than you might have thought, and are making some much needed alterations to make the game better. Here are six of the biggest changes coming to Season 2: 

Changes made for The Traitors Season 2

1. It's an all-celebrity cast.

One of the most glaring complaints coming from fans after Season 1 regarded the casting of newbies alongside reality TV all-stars. Not only were the all-stars more charismatic and used to being on camera, but they also ran circles around the rookies from a strategy perspective. Now for Season 2, the cast will be made up of 21 celebs.

"Last year was brilliant. Last season was great, but we [wanted] a more level playing field this year," said one producer, "Everyone being on the same footing when they started the show." Hopefully this will make the competition fiercer and the stakes higher.

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2. The selection process for being a Traitor will be on display.

With a show called The Traitors, obviously the Traitors themselves play a massive part in the game. In Season 1, the new players entered the Round Table and host Alan Cumming tapped three on the shoulder, knighting them as the nefarious murderers of the season. In Season 2, we'll get a little more insight into the selection process and learn who actually wants to be a Traitor and who would rather be a Faithful.

"In the first episode, Alan sat down with all of the players before they get picked and spent about 10-15 minutes with each chatting about 'What would you do to get your hands on this quarter of a million dollars?'" the team told Parade. These conversations went into the selection process and will give viewers a better sense of the players' strategies going in.

Related: Alan Cumming Describes His "Bond Villain" Role Hosting 'The Traitors'

3. Two new areas have been added to the set.

Unlike shows like Survivor and The Challenge, which involve massive camera crews following contestants around, the set of The Traitors is designed to have as little crew involvement as possible. The producers put the integrity of the game first and foremost and they just want to let the players go at it. To that end, the castle scenes are filmed more like Big Brother than anything else, with producers spying on the cast from cameras strategically placed around the set. (Fun fact: The only people in the Round Table room are the contestants and Alan during filming.)

To that end, the show's producers have built out two new areas for the cast to scuttle off to and gossip, and both of course are rigged up with cameras for our enjoyment. "We've got two new spaces this year," one producer said. "We're calling one the scullery [basically a kitchen], and then outside there's a tiny little area that's called the folley which is a little stone-covered area. It's brilliant. You can get two or three people sneaking out there, and you get these brilliant conversations." The scullery is also stashed with all kinds of snacks requested specifically by the cast.

4. The Life Shields will be handed out differently.

RIP to the armory. Midway through Season 1, a form of immunity called the Life Shield was added to the game with the contestant possessing the Life Shield unable to be murdered by the Traitors. In Season 1, a trip to the luck-based armory was determined by the challenges, but the whole thing felt a little haphazard and strategy didn't factor into the Life Shields too much. The producers, however, caught onto the fact there might be a more compelling way to dole out these highly coveted rewards. Therefore...

5. The challenges will matter a lot more to the game.

"Although we absolutely loved the missions last year, we felt like we could improve the story that came from the missions," said producer Toni Ireland. We wanted them to feel integral to the overall game and the overall show. So that's something we tried really hard to fix this year."

Adeptly, the producers opted to kill two birds with one stone. "This year," she continued, "rather than the players going to the armory, they win actual physical shields in the missions." Cast members will have the choice of helping contribute money to the prize pot or securing their own safety. That will provide the challenges with more intrigue and also give the cast some potentially helpful information for the round tables as well.

6. They won't be entering the breakfast room in the same order.

As I said, the producers are extremely careful not to tip off the players as to the identity of the Traitors. "We're really conscious of how often we pull people for interviews and make sure we're ticking everybody off," one said. "We make sure we're not favoring anybody because the players are really smart."

One thing that eagle-eyed fans noticed during the first season was that the last person to enter the breakfast room each morning was on the Traitors shortlist to be murdered the night before. Therefore, if a player was savvy, they could eliminate those individuals from their list of suspects. "Everyone wrote to us on social," another producer said about this pattern. "We knew that obviously in Season 1, it was fine because nobody had ever seen the show before. It didn't matter. But we saw that, and we've changed the way that people come into breakfast this year to keep people on their toes. We've definitely taken into account some of that feedback."

So if Dan Gheesling and Sandra Diaz-Twine are paying extra close attention to the entrance order at breakfast, it could hurt them more than it helps.

Next, 'The Traitors' Season 2 Cast Announced! Everything We Know About the Series