When watching the U.K. and U.S. versions of The Traitors, I couldn’t help but wonder if the castle it’s set in is haunted. Ardross Castle in Scotland doesn’t have any juicy ghost stories. (Nor does the remote Robertson Hotel that serves as the setting for the Australian version.)
However, HuffPost reported that one of the show’s producers, Jasper Hoogendoorn, revealed that a real-life historical event inspired The Traitors. One that is sordid, gruesome, and disturbing.
It even almost inspired the show to have a different name entirely, The Mutineers. Let’s explore the game show’s unexpected origin story inspired by historical events.
The Shipwreck That Inspired The Traitors
“It was an old Dutch story,” Hoogendoorn said at the Edinburgh TV festival in 2023. He then went on to sum up the events thusly, “In 1629, 300 Dutch people went to Indonesia with big treasure on the ship. There were some people who became mutineers and they were shipwrecked on a very small island off the coast of Australia.”
The ship was the Batavia, owned by the Dutch East India Company. It set sail on its maiden voyage headed from Amsterdam to its namesake port, Batavia, the capital (at that time) of the Dutch East Indies (which is now modern-day Jakarta). However, before it could make it, the ship wrecked near some islands off the coast of Western Australia.
Of the 341 passengers and crew aboard, about 300 made it ashore. Before Batavia‘s commander, Francisco Pelsaert, sailed off to get help for the survivors, he left Jeronimus Cornelisz in charge. However, Cornelisz had a secret. He’d been planning a mutiny anyway. The shipwreck didn’t stop him.
Cornelisz tricked about 20 soldiers traveling with the ship to look for fresh water on nearby islands, where he left them to die. He then returned to the other survivors, where he enlisted the help of his fellow mutineers to massacre almost 125 of the remaining survivors, including women and children. However, he spared a small number of women’s lives, using them as sex slaves.
However, the soldiers he thought he’d stranded to die found water and returned to the survivors. When they saw what had happened, they waged war against the mutineers. Shortly after, Pelsaert returned with a rescue boat. That effectively quelled the mutiny.
Cornelisz and six other mutineers were tried, convicted, and executed. (Making them the first Europeans to face such consequences in Australia.) It ranks as one of the most horrific incidents in maritime history.
The Original Concept for the Show
Instead of being on land and in a castle (or, in the case of The Traitors Australia, in a posh, castle-like hotel), producers originally conceived the show set on a ship. Hoogendoorn envisioned it closely mirroring the historical incident that inspired it.
However, it wasn’t cost-effective. Still, boats factored into both the U.K. and U.S. season finales of The Traitors. Speedboats in season 1, and a pirate ship in season 2. Maybe as a nod to the show’s maritime inspiration?
Not the Real-life Event I Expected
I have to admit, in addition to wondering whether the castle was haunted, I did wonder if the show was rooted in history. But I figured it had more to do with kings and their courts and the power struggles that emerge between dynasties. I never would’ve guessed it had anything to do with a shipwreck. What about you?
The Traitors Season 3
The first three episodes of the third season premiere on Peacock on Thursday, January 9 at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET. New episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET, with the finale and reunion set for March 6 on Peacock.
NBC will also air the first two episodes of The Traitors season 3 on January 20 at 8 pm ET/PT and 9:30 pm ET/PT.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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History is so interesting. I wouldn’t have thought a shipwreck inspired The Traitors.
That is the perfect way to sum it up, Priscilla! History really IS interesting and sparks some wild stuff in return. lol