'Squid Game: The Challenge' Looks Exactly Like Its Inspiration in the Reality Competition Show's Full Trailer
If you've ever wondered what 'Squid Game' would look like IRL, but without the death, Netflix has the series for you.
Let the games begin: Squid Game: The Challenge, that is, and IRL rather than in a fictionalised thriller. When Squid Game became one of Netflix's biggest successes, a reality show that riffed on the concept was always going to happen. There's no death here, but there's still 456 players competing for a huge cash prize while wearing green tracksuits, being overseen by red-clad figures, and playing hopscotch, marbles, sugar honeycombs and tug of war.
The reality competition TV show received the green light back in 2022, after the streaming platform had also confirmed that a second season of Squid Game itself was on its way. In June 2023, Netflix also announced that Squid Game: The Challenge would arrive in November. Then, it locked in Wednesday, November 22 as the spinoff's launch date, and dropped a teaser trailer. Now, a full sneak peek is here — and, sans murder, it looks exactly like its inspiration.
If you're one of the hordes of viewers who watched Squid Game when it instantly became one of the best new TV programs of 2021, as we all are, then you'll understand the concept at the heart of Squid Game: The Challenge. As seen in the two glimpses at the show ahead of its arrival, the whole pesky compete-to-the-death angle is missing, obviously, but everything about the series is as everyone expects. The outfits, the games, the decor, the music and, yes, the notorious Red Light, Green Light doll: they're all accounted for.
How does it work? Again, you already know the details. Those 456 folks — all ordinary people, and not actors — will try to score the $4.56 million by playing a series of games inspired by the extremely fictional South Korean thriller, as well as a few new additions. Also, competitors will be eliminated as the games go on, and forming strategies and alliances will play a huge part.
So, Squid Game: The Challenge is clearly designed to get as close to the OG Squid Game as possible, just without the body count. It's all being overseen by a Front Man, too, because of course it is. The results will unfurl over ten episodes, in what Netflix has dubbed "the biggest reality competition series ever". Well, it certainly has the biggest cast.
Making a gripping and brutal TV show that satirises capitalism, then bringing its games into real life does sound like something that might happen in Squid Game itself if the show was getting meta.
"This is a savage game," one of the contestants in the new trailer offers — but, again, viewers already know that.
Check out the trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge:
Squid Game: The Challenge will stream via Netflix in on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
Squid Game's first season is available to stream via Netflix .
Images: Netflix.
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