They’re here!
Max has released the trailer for the upcoming fourth season of its critically acclaimed reality series We’re Here, which has won four Emmy Awards and a Peabody since debuting in 2010.
The trailer unveils the first look at the new cast of queens who have taken over hosting duties after the July 2023 announcement that the original cast — including Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka, and Shangela — would be replaced. In their place are RuPaul’s Drag Race winners Jaida Essence Hall and Sasha Velour, two-time All-Stars contestant Latrice Royale, and Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka.
This season finds the queens visiting Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, to put on drag performances and talk about the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that has been sweeping through conservative states. The trailer features the queens interacting with residents in both states, with both tense and uplifting moments in equal measure. At one point in the trailer, an offscreen voice informs Velour, Hall, and Priyanka that they “might get arrested” if they perform in drag in public.
Last year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill banning transition-related care for minors, as well as public drag performances. By June, a federal judge struck the law down, declaring it unconstitutional.
Anti-LGBTQ+ policies in Oklahoma have drawn national scrutiny after the death of 16-year-old trans teen Nex Benedict, who died the day after being beaten up in a school bathroom in an altercation with his alleged bullies. (The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office has ruled the death a suicide; LGBTQ+ organizations have continued to call for a thorough investigation into the matter.) Chaya Raichik, creator of the anti-LGBTQ+ social media account Libs of TikTok, was appointed to the state’s Library Media Advisory Committee by Oklahoma Education Department superintendent Ryan Walters in January.
The cast shake-up for We’re Here comes amid numerous allegations against previous host Shangela, including a lawsuit from former production assistant Daniel McGarrigle claiming that the performer sexually assaulted and harassed him. McGarrigle’s lawsuit was dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning that it cannot be refiled, in March, according to People. Following that suit’s dismissal, five more people came forward with sexual assault allegations against Shangela in a March Rolling Stone story.
We’re Here’s fourth season premieres Friday, April 26 on Max.
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