'Squid Game: The Challenge' Controversy: All About Netflix's Real-Life Competition Series
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Netflix's latest reality competition series based on 'Squid Game' is at the center of controversy surrounding filming conditions
Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge has found itself at the center of controversy one year after it was announced.
Loosely based on Netflix's hit South Korean drama, Squid Game, the competition series — that asks its contestants, "How far will you go?" — features a near-identical replica of the hit show and its lethal games, minus the death and extreme violence for those who lose.
Like the original series, the unscripted game show cast 456 contestants — but this time, included players from around the world. They go head-to-head in various challenges based on the Korean children’s games featured in the original Squid Game, in addition to new concepts as well.
For example, contestants will take on the challenge of creeping up on Mugunghwa, the creepy giant doll, while wearing movie-style blood packs that explode on their torso if they fail to complete the "Red light… Green Light" challenge as seen in the first teaser trailer released on June 18.
Related: A 'Squid Game' Reality Show with a $4.56 Million Prize Fund Is Coming to Netflix
Furthermore, the players' outfits mimic the uniforms the characters wear in the original Squid Game, featuring green and white tracksuits with numbers. The guards, meanwhile, dress in the same red suits and black masks from the original drama and don't speak a single word.
Squid Game: The Challenge — which was filmed across two studios in the U.K. — was called a "massive competition and social experiment," by Brandon Riegg, Netflix VP of Unscripted and Documentary Series, in a statement.
However, contestants who participated on the game show spoke out in February 2023 about the "inhumane" conditions they experienced while on set. Variety heard from several of them, who cited filming amid a cold snap in Britain as one of the factors that led to medical attention on site.
While it's unclear how the success of Squid Game: The Challenge will compare to the scripted drama that became Netflix's "biggest series launch ever" (with over 111 million viewers), scroll on for everything to know about the game show and its controversies.
What is Squid Game: The Challenge about?
Squid Game: The Challenge was first announced in June 2022 after the original drama "took the world by storm," said Brandon Riegg, Netflix VP of Unscripted and Documentary Series, in a statement confirming the news. It was shot across two studios in the U.K. and produced by Studio Lambert and The Garden.
Similar to the original Squid Game series, the unscripted game show features 456 contestants who compete in Korean-inspired childhood games nearly identical to those seen on the hit show. Among them are the fiendish "Dalgona Cookie" and "Red Light, Green Light."
The official logline for Squid Game: The Challenge reads: “Though the reality version of ‘Squid Game‘ isn’t a matter of life or death, there’s still a lot on the line: 456 players will compete to win $4.56 million, the largest cash prize in reality television history."
It continues, "Through a series of games, each player will be pushed to their limits and forced to ask themselves just how far they’ll go to win, with opportunistic alliances, cutthroat strategies and timely betrayals to follow."
When did the Squid Game: The Challenge controversy begin?
When Netflix first announced Squid Game: The Challenge, it immediately raised concern and a number of questions due to the extremely violent nature seen in the original Korean series the game show is based on.
But it wasn't until contestants — who weren’t paid to participate in the series — voiced their negative experiences after they were eliminated from the competition that the controversy was further fueled, particularly pegged to participants' treatment on set.
On Jan. 24, The Sun was the first to report on the harsh, frigid playing environment in an article titled, "Squid Game Horror in UK.” It revealed that players had been left freezing in a cavernous airplane hanger in Bedford, playing games that required them to hold statue-like poses for nearly 30 minutes.
Related: 'Squid Game: The Challenge' Gets the Green Light for November — See the First Teaser!
Players told The Sun: “It was like a warzone. People left in tears.” Another said, "Even if hypothermia kicked in then people were willing to stay for as long as possible because a lot of money was on the line."
Vice, Rolling Stone and Variety were among the other outlets to collect comments from eliminated participants who competed on the show. Many of the complaints were tied to the cold snap that Britain faced while filming, further creating complications on set.
Shortly after these allegations surfaced — some of which included medics being called to the set and contestants being removed by stretchers — Deadline reported that Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) contacted producers after receiving concerns about conditions on set.
What happened on the set of Squid Game: The Challenge?
According to Variety, players "were told the actual game would take roughly two hours to play and shoot, but instead that turned into an almost seven-hour ordeal for some contenders." Amid the unforgiving temperatures and physical demands, several contestants reportedly collapsed on set.
A British-born contestant named John told the outlet that he — along with roughly 228 others — “died” playing the very first challenge, resulting in immediate elimination from the show on Jan. 23. The game was “Red Light Green Light.”
When speaking with Variety, John compared it to a "Bear Grylls survival show," admitting that he and the other contestants most likely wouldn't have "gone through with it" if production "had told us it was going to be that cold."
Meanwhile, another player — who didn't see anyone stretchered away — told the outlet that filming was “not as extreme as people are saying.” However, she noted that "it's definitely not as minimal as is being conveyed by Netflix.”
“It’s not like we signed up for ‘Survivor’ or ‘Naked and Afraid,’” she added. “The conditions were absolutely inhumane and had nothing to do with the game.”
One former contestant told Rolling Stone: “It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I’ve ever been through." She added, “We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed.”
“All the torment and trauma we experienced wasn’t due to the game or the rigor of the game,” another former player added. “It was the incompetencies of scale — they bit off more than they could chew.”
What has the Squid Game creator said about the reality show?
Meanwhile, the production companies denied claims of a fixed game, saying “any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue.” Netflix, The Garden and Studio Lambert released the joint statement in early February.
“We care deeply about the health of our cast and crew, and the quality of this show. Any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue. We’ve taken all the appropriate safety precautions, including after care for contestants – and an independent adjudicator is overseeing each game to ensure it’s fair to everyone," the statement continued.
Prior to the harsh filming conditions players experienced on set, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk expressed his worries that his scripted show's original plot wouldn't translate well to the upcoming competition series featuring real people.
"I think that even though our show does carry quite a heavy message — and I know that there are some concerns on taking that message and creating it into a reality show with a cash prize — I feel like when you take things too seriously, that's really not the best way to go for the entertainment industry," he said during the 74th Annual Emmy Awards in September 2022, as reported by TVLine. "It doesn't really set a great precedent."
When does Squid Game: The Challenge premiere?
Squid Game: The Challenge is slated to premiere on Netflix in November 2023.
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