The new series of Celebrity Traitors will begin on October 1, the BBC revealed on Tuesday.

A new explosive trailer released showed the stars meeting each other for the first time at the iconic castle as host Claudia Winkleman declares: 'The game is ON!'

With the challenges getting bigger and better than ever, a ship goes up in flames as a dramatic fireball blows up.  

The series will begin with an extra-long opening episode and the launch night will also see a new bonus special airing.  

Traitor or Faithful? Claudia Decides will be available on October 1 from 9.15pm on BBC iPlayer. Viewers will find out how Claudia chooses her Traitors in the one-off special.

The regular series episodes will air two nights a week on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8pm.

Joining Claudia in the Scottish Highlands are Amol Rajan, Bella Ramsey, James Acaster, James Blunt, Jerry Hall, Joanne McNally, Joe Lycett, Julie Hesmondhalgh, King Kenny and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Maya Jama, Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Myha'la, Professor Hannah Fry, Richard E. Grant, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Ross Kemp, Sebastian Croft and Sharon Rooney complete the line up. 

They will play the ultimate game of detection, trust and betrayal in the hope of winning a cash prize up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

The official video podcast The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked will also return to BBC One, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds as host, Ed Gamble will be joined by banished and murdered players.

The new trailer showed the players arriving to the castle in their swanky cars before heading to a church as they all take their seats for the first task. 

Maya then quips to her fellow players: 'If this is the last time we are all friends, then good luck!'

The trailer then cuts to the first tense Round Table as Claudia tells them: 'I have chosen my Traitors. The game is on!' 

She adds: 'There are now killers among you. People are out there to deceive. Fame won't save them.'

It comes after earlier this month Richard Osman claimed that an entire series of The Traitors was scrapped after an unbroadcastable conversation meant filming was unable to continue.

The author and TV star, 55, admitted he was 'probably not allowed' to share that bosses had to pull the plug on filming, but went on to do so anyway in a podcast with host Jack Dean. 

There is one series in one territory where something was discussed at length in the castle. It led to the show not being able to continue.

Jack then asked: 'So the production… they just lost the whole thing?'

Nodding, Richard replied: 'Yeah!'

He then went on to say: 'The best ever series of The Traitors, I think, is the first ever Australian one, which I think is still on iPlayer. 

'[It's the] single most frustrating series of Traitors,' he began. 'Because there's a Traitor in there who's so obviously a Traitor and a gang of Faithfuls who are so easily led.

'And the few bright people in there immediately disappear, and you're left with this one guy who you don't want to win and just a series of people he can absolutely manipulate at will.' 

Richard then went on to say he wouldn't appear on the Celebrity spin-off as he would only want to be a Traitor. 

He said: 'I would only want to do it as a Traitor and you can't insist.'

Richard said he couldn't stand not knowing who the Traitors were or 'having an inkling that no-one else agrees with'. 

'If you're a Traitor, from minute one of the game at least you have some control. It's still hard to win. But more importantly, you get to be there for all of the filming.'

Richard went on to joke he liked the sound of filming in the turret with a nice cup of tea in-between takes.