Love Island Games sees the return of past islanders, but there are definitely a few new elements in the show that we’re happy to see. From queer relationships to mature conversations, Alex Berry analyses the potential of this series.

The click-clacking of heels on decking, the generic house music, the inane chat that rots your brain. It’s Love Island time again… but in a way you’ve never seen it before. Don’t worry though, the usual dressing-room drama, terrace talk, and cheesy challenges are all still there, but this time round, the islanders might find themselves pulling some familiar faces for a chat.

In an attempt to tackle dipping interest and shrinking audiences, Love Island have upped the ante recently and created the ultimate, all-star version of the infamous dating show. Not only are they bringing back past islanders, including fan-favourites such as Jack Fowler and Eyal Booker (rah) but they also are mixing contestants from the UK, USA and Australian series.

Love Island Games, which aired on Peacock on November 1, now gives a whole new level of entertainment as ex-flames reunite and cultural differences clash, while also providing the usual dose of drama as the contestants begin their sun-fuelled search for love.

From the UK bunch, the iconic islanders of series past include ballroom dancer and self-professed morning coffee maker, Curtis Pritchard, loyal as a labrador Georgia Steel, and season 7’s semi-professional football and full-time girl player, Toby Aromoloran.

The show has been experimenting with bringing back past contestants for the past few years, with season 4’s Adam Collard returning for season 8 in 2022, and season 2’s Kady McDermott ruffling feathers in this summer’s series.

McDermott was reportedly asked to be involved in this spin-off, revealing on the Staying Relevant podcast, “I got asked to do Love Island Games in September - I've had enough, I'm retired for the year. I’ll leave that one.”

But it usually goes down well with fans. After seven seasons of identical format and robot-like conversations about connections and types on paper, even the hottest bombshell couldn’t draw in viewers as much as Iain Stirling’s “Guess…who’s…back” did, and now we have a whole series of this thrill. 

While it definitely feels like deja vu watching Liberty Poole try to explain how we haven’t seen her funny side, or cringing while Pritchard insists on bringing up dancing, there has been a stand-out highlight on the show, which has made Love Island history in just the first week.

The dating show has often come under fire for its lack of representation of queer relationships. While there was a short-lived fling between Emma-Jane Woodham and Sophie Gradon in season 2, the show’s format of coupling up, even numbers and strict bed-sharing rules doesn’t always allow for same-sex relationships to flourish. However, it has been refreshing to see US contestant, Kyra Green confessing her attraction to UK Love Island royalty, Megan Barton Hanson, with the two finally sharing a kiss and coupling up. 

They were shown having a conversation about their sexuality, with Green nervously saying, “I never know when girls are like into girls or like, there’s just like a mutual feeling,” before sharing that most of her relationships have been with other women.

Barton Hanson confessed to first discovering her sexuality while being in some sort of relationship with a couple, before realising she was “only invested in the girl”.

The UK season 4 star who ended the series with Wes Nelson, then shared her opinion about the double standards between men and women regarding sexuality. She said, “I’m very openly sexual. I feel like it’s not fair that men get to just be like applauded for being players and live their best lives but as women it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re a slut,’ or you get slut shamed.”

She also opened up to Green about her previous work in the sex industry saying, “I was a stripper before I went on Love Island. You can imagine people in the UK are still quite conservative. To be able to help one girl be like, ‘OK I can be authentically myself,’ whether that’s working in the sex industry or coming out as bisexual, I just think it makes it all worth it.”

There’s a lot of potential for Love Island Games, not least for the nostalgic familiarity of previous cast and crossovers between the series, but because it might be home to some of the most important and necessary conversations on TV right now.