We’re getting an all-new season of Dancing With the Stars, and the contestants are absolutely stacked.

The season also has some pretty damn impressive pairings to boot.

But as a The Rookie Fanatic, a hardcore fan of some of these contestants, and someone who likes a more even playing field, I am conflicted beyond measure right now.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

So, first, we have to lay out the cast before you can fully understand the full breadth of my conundrum.

Dancing With the Stars Season 35 has a great blend of reality stars, actual stars — no shade, okay, maybe a little — athletes, musicians, and pretty much everything else you can envision. Fair enough.

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The season also has a handful of contestants who fall beneath the Disney umbrella, from stars of ABC shows to familiar Hulu and Freeform faces.

And then we have the absolute icons.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air‘s Tatyana Ali and Julia freaking Stiles are both joining the competition, and I, for one, am thrilled about the prospect of a Fresh Prince reunion between Ali and Alfonso Ribeiro.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

Ali will be paired with Jan Ravnik, while Stiles will dance with relative newcomer Ezra Sosa.

But let’s not pretend either woman is walking into this competition without some advantages. Ali is Broadway-trained, while Stiles has an extensive theater background and, yes, starred in one of the most iconic teen dance films of all time: Save the Last Dance.

I’m not saying they don’t immediately have a bit of an edge. Actually, sure, I am, but that’s nothing like what DWTS sets up with its ABC stars!

This season’s clear frontrunners right out of the gate are Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr., who are both currently starring in two of ABC’s biggest dramas: The Rookie and Grey’s Anatomy.

They are, quite literally, professional dancers. They built their careers on their dance backgrounds, and both performers toured the world because of their talents.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

As a The Rookie fan, I cannot be more conflicted about Jenna Dewan’s involvement, though.

On the one hand, it feels patently unfair to have someone with Dewan’s dance background competing on a dance competition series.

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On the other hand, as an unapologetic Bailey Nunes loather, the prospect of having LESS Bailey in a season of The Rookie thrills me and makes me gleeful. Pardon the pun.

This could be an answer to my prayers because the DWTS schedule can be quite strenuous, and The Rookie should be filming while all of this is going on. For the love of the TV gods, please, let this mean a reprieve from Bailey Nunes and her antics!

Ahem. And amen.

(Disney/Mike Taing)

That same enthusiasm doesn’t apply to the prospect of losing screen time for Harry Shum Jr.’s Blue Kwan on Grey’s Anatomy.

Still, the sad reality is that Grey’s Anatomy has been utterly wasting Shum’s talents for a couple of seasons now, so perhaps this will allow him to remind everyone exactly what he can do while they hit their drawing board for his character on Grey’s.

But my frustration about all of this only deepens when we dig into not just the casting of people with extensive dance experience, but, you know, the fact that they’re pairing them with former Mirrorball champions.

Shum will dance with two-time winner Jenna Johnson, while Dewan is paired with three-time winner Val Chmerkovskiy. Talk about tipping the scales.

We also have Mark Ballas reuniting with his The Traitors friend Mara Higgins, which should be entertaining, to say the least. Their familiarity alone could give them an interesting advantage when working together, though.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

The rest of the cast is equally eclectic.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Conner Leavitt will dance with Adele Zaikman, while Summer House’s Ciara Miller is paired with Brandon Armstrong.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Guillermo Rodriguez will team up with Witney Carson, podcaster and comedian Connor Wood will dance with Rylee Arnold, and celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is paired with Alan Bersten.

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We’re also getting the third debut of a same-sex pairing, with Love Thy Nader’s Sarah Jane Nader dancing with newcomer Hailey Bills.

And then there’s Taylor Hanson. Yes, Mmm-Bop icon Taylor Hanson of that adorable brother group that preceded the Jonas Brothers, thank you very much.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

He’ll be dancing with Britt Stewart.

The season also features plenty of athletes and Olympians, including figure skater Amber Glenn paired with Pasha Pashkov, Paralympic track-and-field medalist Ezra French with Daniella Karagach, and baseball player Jackson Olson with Emma Slater.

It’s a promising slate of stars. A diverse one, too. And it’s bound to be a buzzy season that keeps people glued to their screens.

But while it’ll undoubtedly be exciting to watch, it’s difficult to ignore the feeling that the cards may already be stacked.

Not because anyone has done anything wrong or because contestants with dance experience don’t deserve to compete, but because Dancing With the Stars is at its best when the competition feels unpredictable.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

The fun is watching underdogs emerge.

It’s in seeing stars with little to no experience in dance push themselves beyond what they ever thought possible, and pros take someone who has never done anything remotely close to ballroom dancing and mold them into a legitimate contender.

That’s the magic of DWTS.

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Now, contestants like Dewan and Shum could pose their own unique challenges. Having a background in dance doesn’t necessarily mean you’re immediately equipped to master ballroom.

They’ll have to unlearn certain things, adjust their technique, and approach dancing from an entirely different perspective.

The same can be said for someone like Amber Glenn. Figure skating and ballroom dancing require completely different types of movement, and one skill set doesn’t necessarily translate perfectly to the other.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

That experience could be an advantage, but it could also be a disadvantage.

But with the casting and pairings, particularly when it comes to Shum and Dewan, it currently feels as if we’re heading toward a race to see which of them will walk away with the Mirrorball. At the same time, everyone else serves as the opening act.

These contestants all sound great, and they’ll be interesting to watch. And, again, I relish the chance of Dewan’s DWTS journey minimizing her The Rookie one this season.

But I also don’t want to enter a season already feeling like I know the frontrunners. I want surprises, underdogs, and a competition that feels like anyone can win.

So far, I’m not getting that, but I can be proven wrong.

(Disney/Andrew Eccles)

We have legitimate legends, beloved stars, fascinating personalities, and athletes who are bound to warm the cockles of your heart.

Maybe that’ll be enough, even if the Mirrorball race presently feels like a foregone conclusion before anyone has even set foot on the dance floor.

Anyone feeling the way I am? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

Dancing with the Stars premieres Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, for its two-night premiere.

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