The Crystal Maze will return in 2019 with all new celebrity episodes and an all new zone: The Eastern Zone. Influenced by the historic art, architecture and monuments of East Asia, the zone will feature five games rooms for eight new games, set around a lily pond, cherry blossom trees and ornate vases. The new zone will join the Futuristic, Aztec and Industrial Zones, with all four featuring a host of challenging new puzzles in the forthcoming series. It’s the first time a new realm has been added to the show since the Ocean Zone was introduced in the fourth series of the original 1990s run.

Richard Ayoade as Maze Master will be again welcoming teams of five celebrity contestants, who will take on a host of skill, physical, mental and mystery challenges, in the hope of winning crystals that can be exchanged for time in the iconic Crystal Dome. The celebrity specials will once again see the teams aiming to win a prize sum for Stand Up To Cancer. The production of 13 new episodes will include a Christmas special, with filming taking place at the 30,000 sq. ft. studio space at The Bottle Yard Studios, Bristol.

The Eastern Zone has been designed by production designer, James Dillon, who has designed all the zones featured on the series since its original run in the 1990s. He and the programme’s team of games designers have come together to create a fantasy microcosm of pre-modern East Asia complete with challenging themed games.

James Dillon comments: “It’s very exciting to be asked to design a new zone for The Crystal Maze. The challenge, to create a zone referencing such an ancient and beautiful part of the world, and to bring those intense, rich colours and textures to the mix of zones that make up the Maze, has been most enjoyable.”

Neale Simpson, Executive Producer at Fizz adds: “We’re thrilled to be back with more maze-based madness and especially excited to share our new zone, all-new games and some frankly ridiculous new nonsense involving an over-sized crystal.”

The Crystal Maze is executive produced by Neale Simpson for Fizz, a Banijay Group company and is a Banijay Group format. The series is commissioned for Channel 4 by Tom Beck and Karen Murdoch, Commissioning Editors, Entertainment.

The Crystal Maze will return to Channel 4 later this year.