As has become tradition, the Survivor 50 finale ended not only with the reveal of this season’s winner, but also with a sneak peek at the next season of the show: Survivor 51. And as Jeff Probst has previously teased, it’s definitely looking to be a true evolution of the old school Survivor fans have been asking for and the new era of gameplay we’ve come to expect.
In fact, based on the teaser trailer, Survivor 51 is giving a bit of Ghost Island vibes with an allusion that old twists and resources will be re-entering the game. And if that’s the case, we’re here for it! But there are a few other hints in the reveal that might give us some insights on what we can expect for the next season—and era—of the game.
The teaser opens with one of the players saying Survivor hasn’t started this way since the early, early days of the game. But then we cut to a true marooning, which was last utilized in Survivor: Kaoh Rong. That either leads us to believe that they were being purposefully dramatic for effect or maybe our new castaways don’t know the game as well as in the fast.
A huge part of Survivor in the last 15 years has been fans being the one to play the game—or at least players coming into the game with more knowledge than the early season castaways had. But, it kind of looks like production may be leaning into the origins of the game with a less aware cast, which makes sense. If you’re wanting to bring back old twists and advantages that changed the game, it’s best to do it with a group of people who don’t know how the twists played out the first time around.
And it also might just be me, but a lot of these new players—in certain angles—are giving off major doppelganger vibes for some fan-favorite players. The first time I watched it, I swear I spotted Charlie Davis, Andrea Boehlke, Amanda Kimmel, and Colby Donaldson. Obviously they aren’t actually in the season, but it just felt a little spooky that so many new players are slightly reminiscent, visually, of past ones.
But what’s most important about this announcement is Jeff’s confirmation that the newest era of the game is truly going to go back to its roots and combine every era of Survivor with nothing off limits as far as game formatting goes. That—hopefully—means that unlike Survivor 41-49 which became fairly predictable at a certain point, we’re going to be getting true season-by-season changes with themes leading the narrative for our castaways as it did previously.
I’m, of course, excited to see what happens next on Survivor regardless of any predictions or expectations this first look might have set for me. There’s a whole world of possibility out there now after Survivor 50 shook things up this season. Who knows what the future of Survivor will bring?
Add us as a preferred source on Google