'RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars' Is Throwing out the Playbook for Season 5

RuPaul Charles is always switching up the formula on RuPaul's Drag Race, which is probably why the drag competition has stayed so fresh for over a decade. And if you have followed the previous four seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars, you know Ru is always throwing her girls curveballs when they return to the werkroom. But this time it sounds like Drag Race All Stars 5 will have the twist to end all twists.

“For All-Stars 5, we’ve come up with a new twist that is so twisted it’s guaranteed to twist your twisted minds,” RuPaul said in a statement when the Season 5 cast was announced. The 59-year-old host told the cast that all rules are out the window — but what does that even mean when the rules change every season? 

Gentlemen, start your speculation — and may the best theory win! We have some possible spoilers, but first, let's explore the twists in previous seasons.

In Season 1, Ru paired the queens up to compete in teams. The losing team would go home in a double elimination until the last pair standing would go head-to-head for a shot at the crown. Season 2 did away with the pairs and instituted a new twist that stuck around for the next two seasons. 

Rather than having the bottom two queens Lip Sync for Your Life, Ru had the top two Lip Sync for Your Legacy, winning the maxi-challenge prize as well as the chance to decide which of the queens in the bottom would go home.

For Season 3, things stayed pretty much the same, except for a twist revealed in the season's last episode. All the previously eliminated queens returned to serve as the jury to vote for the top two out of the remaining top four finalists, with Ru deciding on the winner after one last Lip Sync for Your Legacy.

Though Season 4 didn't have a twist that expanded on previous years, it had the unprecedented twist of a tie for first place, with Ru crowning both Monet X Change and Trinity The Tuck.

While we can't confirm the veracity of this spoiler from last summer, it did get the cast completely right for the alleged scenario for Season 5. (Be warned, they also claim to have the elimination order up to the final three so click with caution.)

According to "Drag Race Crack," the twist is the introduction of a Lip Sync Assassin to every maxi challenge. Each week, Ru chooses a winner for the challenge, who will have to lip sync against a guest queen dubbed a "Lip Sync Assassin." If the challenge winner beats their assassin, they win the prize money and decide which queen in the bottom goes home.

 But if they lose, all the safe queens vote for who goes home and the maxi challenge prize stays in the pot. That means the pot for the next week goes up by $10K. The stakes could get very intense if the Assassins win several weeks on end.

The likelihood of that happening depends on who the Lip Sync Assassins are, and based on some spoilers, I wouldn't want to go up against any of these queens:

• Yvie Oddly (winner, Season 11)
• Alyssa Edwards (6th place, Season 5; 5th place, All-Stars 2)
• Monet X Change (6th place and Miss Congeniality, Season 10; co-winner, All-Stars 4)
• Roxxxy Andrews (runner-up, Season 5; 4th place, All-Stars 2)
• Manila Luzon (runner-up, Season 3; 7th/8th place All-Stars 1, 6th place, All-Stars 4)
• Vanessa Vanjie Mateo (14th place Season 10, 5th place Season 11)

If this is true, it should make for some increasingly intense Lip Syncs as the pot increases. We'll find out for sure what the twist is when RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars Season 5 debuts Friday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m. on VH1.