Squid Game: The Challenge Casting—How To Get Onto Netflix’s Hit Reality Show

Sophie Hanson
·4 min read
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With the finale of season 1 done and dusted and the winner crowed, everyone wants to know what the deal is with Squid Game: The Challenge casting and how they might get in the running to pocket the $4.56m for themselves, which is the biggest cash prize in the history of reality TV.

Netflix’s new reality competition, Squid Game: The Challenge, puts 456 participants against each other through a series of games inspired by the original show—plus surprising new additions—their strategies, alliances, and characters will be put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them. It’s a recreation of the 2021 South Korean hit, Squid Game, where 456 financially struggling individuals enter a dangerous competition to win a massive prize of 45.6 billion won (equivalent to 38.7 million US dollars). Unlike the OG series, however, no contestants are killed when they’re eliminated. Obviously.

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The Challenge has reproduced some of the most iconic elements from the viral survival drama, from the recognizable green tracksuits to the childlike games. In the first few episodes, they played a game of Red Light, Green Light, where they had to get from one side of the room to another without being spotted by a giant doll. To remain motionless during the game, participants employed a range of tactics such as placing their hands in their pockets, crawling on the ground and even squatting. Sounds like something you’d be into? For a chance at $4.56 million, perhaps? Here’s everything we know about Squid Game: The Challenge casting.

Squid Game: The Challenge casting

All the information about Squid Game: The Challenge casting can be found here on the official Netflix site to sign up—noting that there’s a US, UK, and global option, whatever that means. Participants need to be over the age of 21 at the time of applying, the legal right to reside in the US, and be available for four weeks to film, as well as own a passport.

You’ll then need to fill out a form with your basic details and then film a one-minute-long video explaining: “Why you want to be on Squid Game: The Challenge, what your game plan would be and what you would do with a huge $4.56 million cash prize if you won.” Lastly, you need to upload two recent photos of yourself.

Who won season 1 of Squid Game: The Challenge?

Mai is the winner of Squid Game: The Challenge. In an epic battle of rock-paper-scissors, Mai outwitted the remaining two finalists Phill and Sam. “I am so happy because this is my childhood game,” said Mai in a confessional. She added of her strategy, “Playing against an adult male, they tend to draw towards rock and scissors because it symbolizes to them the power within them. Rock is solid and it’s strong, and scissors has the power to cut, and it’s also strong.”

In a final battle between her and Phill, she won and unlocked the key to the safe. “I don’t know whether to cry or to cheer. I don’t know what to do,” she told Phill at the moment.

In a confessional interview, she said, “Today just validates that anything is possible. Even when [you] feel down and afraid, you have to pick yourself up, be a strong person and focus. Whatever you fear is, fight it with everything you got, and you can accomplish anything. And I’ve proven that tonight. I am the winner.”

Mai lives comfortably in her home in Fairfax, Virginia. In an interview with Netflix Tudum, she revealed that she spends her time relaxing with her husband and their two dogs, and spending time with her 12-year-old granddaughter. “It was a relief to go back to normal life and not worry about getting eliminated. I needed that after two and a half weeks of intense go, go, go, and emotional ups and downs,” she says. “But the person that came into [the competition] is me. I’m still Mai, and she hasn’t changed — except that I came out stronger.”

As for what she’ll do with the money? She currently has her eye on fixing up her home and adding a dock for a boat. “My heart is with people, animals, and climate change,” she says about her new plans. “If we continue what we’re doing, there won’t be a future for all the little kids growing up right now.”

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