Based on the hit Squid Game, which currently holds the record as Netflix’s most-watched show ever, the streaming service has shared the first trailer of the reality show based on the drama.
Squid Game: The Challenge is due for release on November 22nd and will roll out episodes until December 6th. Featuring the drama series’ most iconic moments, in which participants played survival games in an attempt to win $38million, the reality games show puts contestants to the same tests – only significantly less deadly.
In the first trailer for the show, 456 people are competing to win a $4.56million prize – the biggest prize in reality show history. Facing the TV series’ most famous game of Red Light, Green Light, amongst other daring moments, including fake gunshots and gripping teasers of contestants falling off bridges, the reality show could prove as tense as the original drama.
Bringing together hundreds of contestants from around the world, the energy of Squid Game: The Challenge matches up to the original drama series. As contestants ‘die’ and are eliminated from the series, it has the drama and shock of Squid Game with less gore. Instead, contestants are splattered with black ink, symbolising their elimination rather than the bloody and brutal deaths met by characters in the TV series.
But the competition series is already proving controversial. Rumours spiralled that three contestants had been injured on set while the show was filmed at Bedfordshire’s Cardington Studios. Talking to Variety, one contestant on the reality show spoke about intense working conditions with long hours in cold conditions, describing it as a “warzone”.
While based on one of Netflix’s bloodiest survival dramas, contestants seemed unprepared for the conditions they found themselves in, stating “This is not a Bear Grylls survival show,” says John. “If they had told us it was going to be that cold, no one would have gone through with it.”
However, Netflix rubbished these claims, stating that “while it was very cold on set – and participants were prepared for that – any claims of serious injury are untrue.”
