Squid Game: The Challenge Is A New Reality Series Is Coming To Netflix

There is no doubt that Squid Game was one of the biggest hits Netflix has ever seen. The story of Seong-Gi, a divorced dad struggling with crippling gambling debt who joins 455 other people playing deadly children’s games in order to win a large cash prize, was an international hit. So much so that people were dressing up as the doomed contestants for Halloween despite the incredibly dark subject of the contest. People killing each other to win money. And now, apparently, the murderous game is about to become a reality series. Here’s everything you need to know about Squid Game: The Challenge.

Squid Game: The Challenge premieres in November 2023.

Squid Game: The Challenge starts streaming on Netflix on Nov. 22, 2023. In the reality series, 456 real players will compete for a cash prize of $4.56 million. “As they compete through a series of games inspired by the original show — plus surprising new additions — their strategies, alliances, and character will be put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them,” the synopsis reads.

The first official teaser for Squid Game: The Challenge was released on Sept. 22 and the animatronic girl with pigtails that gave us all nightmares is back yet again. So are “The Guards” in their pink jumpsuits and contestants in their numbered green sweatsuits. We also see a glimpse of how they recreated the “red light, green light” scene for the competition series.

“$4.56 million? People do a whole lot worse for a whole lot less,” one of the contestants says in the teaser.

No bloodshed is expected for this reality series.

While Squid Game was an incredibly violent, dark series about the lengths to which people will go to get out of debt (and how the wealthy love to watch them destroy each other along the way), Squid Game: The Challenge is fortunately not going down that road.

“As they compete through a series of games inspired by the original show — plus surprising new additions — their strategies, alliances, and character will be put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them,” Netflix shared in a statement about the series. “The stakes are high, but in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed.”

Reactions to Squid Game: The Challenge have been skeptical.

Early reactions to Squid Game: The Challenge have been skeptical, to say the least. Many people took to Twitter to wonder if any executives at Netflix actually watched the series or indeed understood that the entire point of the series was to call out the horrible lengths people will go to in an effort to escape poverty. “Way to miss the whole point of Squid Game,” wrote one, while another noted, “We don’t need a Squid Game reality show. Poor people already dying because of rich people.”

“It’s all fun and games until the show becomes reality,” one commented on the teaser, while another wondered, “I’m very curious how they’re gonna get rid of players in the game.”

Is Squid Game: The Challenge appropriate for kids?

While the new 10-episode reality competition has yet to be rated as it is still in its early stages of casting, it will likely not get the same TV-MA rating that the original Squid Game received. People won’t be killed in this reality series, after all, so it could be something fun to watch for families with tweens.

Squid Game Season 2 is coming to Netflix.

Netflix is doubling down with the series by renewing the fictional Squid Game television series for a second season. The South Korean hit is back for “a whole new round,” director Hwang Dong-hyuk announced in a statement on Netflix. No word yet on that release date, but we can probably assume this second season will be bloodier than the reality competition.