Joe Marler confessed he’s played game long before Celebrity Traitors final
Former rugby star Joe Marler is hoping to be crowned a champion in the Celebrity Traitors finale on Thursday night, and the retired prop has been playing the game for some time
Former England and Harlequins prop Joe Marler has been a fan of The Traitors long before he made his debut on the BBC series this autumn. And he’s hoping to be crowned champion in tonight’s finale.
The current season of the popular BBC show is set to reach its climax on Thursday as Traitors Alan Carr and Cat Burns try to evade the Faithfuls. However, Marler appears to be hot on their trail as he zeroes in on the remaining deceivers among the celebrity line-up.
Some might cry foul, however, given Marler’s extensive knowledge of the game. This comes after he shared how he and his former England colleagues would play a version of The Traitors while on international duty.
The Traitors is based on a social deduction game called Werewolf, where villagers (or Faithfuls) must identify the Werewolves (or Traitors) who kill one of them each night. This concept was inspired by another game called Mafia, which was devised by a Russian psychology student named Dimitry Davidoff in 1986.
Interestingly, England’s rugby stars aren’t the only ones who have enjoyed the game while in camp. Marler was touring with the Red Rose in Japan last year when he disclosed his vast experience in identifying Traitors, as well as revealing their football counterparts were in on the act, too.
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“We all wake up and check the England football score from the Euros, because the games are played in the middle of the night here,” he wrote for the Daily Mail in the summer of 2024. “I heard [England footballer] Jude Bellingham talking about his ‘werewolf celebration’, which is based on the Traitors-style game they play in camp.
“We’ve been playing the same thing. There’s a killing every night, and you’ve got to work out who the two werewolves are.”
Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who are team-mates for both club and country, have developed a routine with their werewolf celebration on the international stage. The hands-over-face gesture is apparently a nod to a member of the England backroom staff, thought to be squad photographer Eddie Keogh.
Speaking to the BBC after displaying the celebration at Euro 2024, Bellingham told the BBC: “When we play Wolf, one of the staff loves that face when he doesn’t have a clue what is going on, so that was a little group celebration for the Wolf crew.”
Given he hung up his rugby boots in 2024, ex-loosehead Marler may have been slightly rusty by the time cameras rolled for Celebrity Traitors. Nevertheless, the reality remains he joined the programme with a clear edge over most of his fellow Faithfuls.
ITV host Jonathan Ross arrived on the show as a self-proclaimed devotee of The Traitors. And while he delivered an impressive performance, even he couldn’t escape Marler’s attention before he was accurately eliminated as one of the villains.
Marler is now on a mission to pinpoint Carr and Burns as the remaining Traitors. If he succeeds, he and any other Faithfuls left standing will share the hefty jackpot of up to £100,000 between their selected charities.
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