With the premiere now just days away, it’s time to familiarize ourselves with the next round of Survivor castaways.

For the program’s 17th installment, the reality show will be kicking things up a notch. This season, the contestants will be “battling extreme conditions and interacting with wildlife such as elephants and gorillas” during their stay in Gabon. The filthy castaways will also have all of their flaws exposed in high-definition. (That’s a first for the long-running series.)

Host Jeff Probst says the African locale is the perfect setting for the contest we will be seeing this year. “In a strange coincidence to Earth’s Last Eden—good vs. evil emerges as a major theme this season. I think the audience will quickly identify with one group or the other.”

Here are the 18 characters who will be trying to outwit, outplay and outlast for the $1 million prize.  (You can catch a sneak preview of the show with the survivors below.)

• Randy Bailey, 49, wedding videographer from Eagle Rock, MO
• Jacque Berg, 25, medical salesperson from Santa Barbara, CA
• Danny “GC” Brown, 26, maintenance man from Portland, OR
• Michelle Chase, 24, music production assistant from Los Angeles, CA
• Crystal Cox, 29, former Olympic gold medalist from Durham, NC
• Robert “Bob” Crowley, 58, physics teacher from Portland, ME
• Kelly Czarnecki, 22, retail salesperson from Buffalo Grove, Il
• Ace Gordon, 27, jewelry salesperson from Naples, FL
• Charlie Herschel, 29, lawyer from New York, NY
• Ken Hoang, 22, professional gamer from Westminster, CA
• Corinne Kaplan, 29, pharmaceutical salesperson from Los Angeles, CA
• Dan Kay, 32, lawyer from Boston, MA
• Jessica “Sugar” Kiper, 29, pinup model from Brooklyn, NY
• Gillian Larson, 61, retired nurse from Temecula, CA
• Marcus Lehman, 28, doctor from Atlanta, GA
• Susie Smith, 47, hairdresser from Charles City, IA
• Paloma Soto-Castillo, 24, student from Downey, CA
• Matty Whitmore, 29, personal trainer from Pacific Palisades, CA

Survivor: Gabon - Earth’s Last Eden will debut with a two-hour premiere this Thursday @ 8pm.

(To get a look at TV Envy’s Fall Programming Schedule, click here.)