The Challenge Season 40 will unleash a starstudded lineup of cast members representing the extensive history of MTV’s competition series.
Appropriately named Battle of the Eras, four teams represent four eras, each featuring 10 cast members picked from the show’s 39 seasons.
On Tuesday, the first official trailer for the new season arrived with hard-hitting moments featuring the show’s significant stars.
“We’ve chosen the toughest players in 40 seasons,” host TJ Lavin says as images of the various competitors arrive on-screen.
In the footage, viewers see the 40 stars who will step onto the playing field, including Johnny Bananas, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Jordan Wiseley, Cara Maria Sorbello, Amanda Garcia, Tori Deal, and Tina Barta.
The trailer also teases plenty of exciting situations viewers will see, including one superstar’s potential season-ending injury and a possible heated moment as an OG calls out a castmate.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras trailer debuts featuring the four Era teams
With the new season less than a month away, The Challenge dropped its Battle of the Eras trailer on social media platforms, including Instagram, X, and YouTube.
As cast members’ confessional interview clips, sound bites, and footage from the season plays, TJ also explains each team’s era. That includes Era 1, which started things for The Challenge, with cast members like CT, Mark Long, Tina, and Rachel Robinson.
TJ indicates that Era 2 “introduced Fresh Meat.” It features stars from The Challenge: Fresh Meat, including Cara Maria, Laurel Stucky, Brandon Nelson, and Derek Chavez. They join MTV stars, including Bananas, Nehemiah Clark, and KellyAnne Judd.
According to TJ, Era 3 brought some of the show’s significant “rivalries and romances.” It’s no surprise that Jordan, Tori, Amanda, Nia Moore, and Devin Walker are all part of this group.
The fourth and final team is Era 4, which TJ says “brought the game global.” That group includes two of the show’s top international stars, Total Madness winner Jenny West and War of the Worlds runner-up Theo Campbell.
Newcomers to The Challenge, including Paulie Calafiore, Josh Martinez, Nurys Mateo, Horacio Gutierrez, Kyland Young, and Olivia Kaiser, join them in the group.
View the official trailer below to see some of the exciting daily challenges, dramatic moments, and eliminations from Season 40.
Trailer footage teases interesting events from Season 40
As everyone might expect, Amanda and Tori are still not friends in the footage from Season 40. Additionally, it appears that Theo is ready to gain his revenge on a castmate. Does he have a gripe with Cara, Paulie, or someone else from the cast?
Since the season ended, several showmances have become public as post-filming relationships, including Devin dating Michele and Theo dating Olivia. The trailer doesn’t necessarily reveal those, but it includes Nia kissing a castmate at the pool. Is it Kyland or another cast member?
One of the most significant moments in the first official Battle of the Eras trailer involves fan-favorite CT. Footage reveals the five-time Challenge winner somersaulting down through the air, but where or how he lands is unclear.
Moments later, the former Real World: Paris star is being hauled away on a stretcher and put into a medical van.
“My back. I’m trying to move ’em,” a distraught CT is heard saying, but it’s unknown what happened and if this is the end of his season.
Later footage reveals Josh’s bloodied-up face and the return of everyone’s favorite elimination event, Hall Brawl.
Another big moment arrives as Tina, part of Era 1, seems to be confronting a nearby castmate.
“How many people f***in’ hate you?” she asks the off-camera castmate.
Tina has castmates Derrick Kosinski and Rachel nearby. Based on those remarks and what’s happened over MTV’s seasons, it could be anyone she’s speaking to off-camera, including Amanda, Tori, Paulie, Bananas, Cara, or Michele Fitzgerald.
“We have people crying, screaming, threatening to quit,” someone else says in a sound bite.
As TJ says, viewers “have never seen a battle like this before” in what appears to be a refreshing return to The Challenge after Battle For a New Champion.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras premieres Wednesday, August 14 at 8/7c on MTV.
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