Netflix has released the first official trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge. While we still don’t have an actual second season of the hit South Korean series that took the streaming service by storm in 2021, we are getting a spin-off of sorts that will see real people competing for a whole bunch of money while competing in challenges inspired by the original show. Whether or not that’s something that viewers are truly interested in remains to be seen. But what is it going to look like? See for yourself.
Notably, we don’t have the literal live-or-die stakes here as we haven’t reached the point of no return in our society where killing people on TV to entertain the masses has become the norm. Thank goodness for that. But we have reached the point in the streaming wars where a show about the class system has been turned into a game show where hundreds of people compete for millions of dollars, for better or worse. The official synopsis for the series reads as follows:
“456 real players will enter the competition show in pursuit of a life-changing reward of USD $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 series, which was announced last year, will span ten episodes in its first season. In a bit of a shake-up for Netflix, episodes will debut weekly beginning in December, rather than having all of the episodes drop at once. This has become more common with other streaming services, but Netflix has largely held onto the binge-release model. It appears they want to milk this one for all it’s worth. Nicola Brown, Tim Harcourt, John Hay, Toni Ireland, Anna Kidd, Stephen Lambert, Louise Peet, Nia Yemoh and Stephen Yemoh serve as executive producers of the series.
Still no word on when Squid Game season 2 will arrive, but it is expected to debut sometime in 2024. Meanwhile, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is developing a film titled Killing Old People Club. No word on when we might see that come to fruition either, unfortunately.
Squid Game: The Challenge premieres on Netflix on December 6.
