Now that a reality show based on Netflix’s hit survivor drama, Squid Game, has been announced, just what can be expected from the competitive series anyway?
Surely, it won’t be a one-to-one recreation of the rules in the show, as that involved murdering the people who lose and giving the sole winner an exorbitant sum of money. We’re guessing the stakes will be much lower here, which shouldn’t be too hard to do considering the original show put a macabre spin on what started out as simple playground games.
First thing’s first, just how do we know Squid Game: The Challenge is the real deal anyway? It turns out, Netflix actually released a short trailer announcement for the show, which you can view below:
And apparently, the stakes aren’t so different from the show, after all – well, sort of. In the trailer, they explain the competition will narrow things down from 456 total contestants, just like in the fictitious show. But the prize money is slated to be $4.56 million (U.S.), rather than the 45.6 billion won of the original fictional narrative show (which converts to $38 million in U.S. currency, according to Newsweek).
The announcement also came with an accompanying website, SquidGameCasting.com. On the website, there are three categories to choose from: U.S. casting, U.K. casting, and global casting.
So who all is eligible to participate? Well, according to the website,
“For this round, the Front Man is in search of English-language speakers from any part of the world. The stakes are high, but in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed.”
It’s easy to tell that the show has not actually been filmed yet as they are still recruiting participants for the contest. They’re going to need a good amount of time to put it all together, too, as Netflix is billing it as “the largest cast in reality TV history,” according to the website.
The next logical question is whether we know what the actual games are that will be in the competition. According to Variety,
“Contestants will go through a series of games inspired by the original show, plus new additions, which are all intended to test their strategies, alliances and character as others are eliminated around them.”
That would seem to indicate the show may include, but is not limited to, the games “ddakji” — the contest involving folded paper — “Red Light, Green Light”, “Sugar Honeycombs”, “Tug of War”, “Marbles”, “Glass Stepping Stones”, and the titular “Squid Game”.
In terms of the number of episodes we can expect, that will be 10, according to the Variety article.
