Netflix has been hard at work turning its South Korean breakout drama Squid Game into a fully-fledged reality competition series and now, we’re finally getting a sneak peek at this game show from hell.
As part of the star-studded TUDUM event, the streamer unveiled a quick teaser for Squid Game: The Challenge — its highly-anticipated, somewhat-controversial follow-up to the Emmy-winning survival drama that dropped in 2021. The show features 456 players competing for a collective cash prize of $4.56 million. It’s been touted as the biggest reality competition series ever, but it’s also been plagued by injury reports, rumors of “cruel” and “inhumane” treatment, and stories of something colloquially known amongst contestants and the “38-second massacre.”
Unfortunately, this early look at the show glosses over any mayhem happening behind the scenes, but what it lacks in gameplay it makes up for in creepy vibes and an unsettling feeling that this entire thing was a giant mistake. The 30-second clip gives fans a view of how the series has perfectly- replicated the drama’s main arena — from the massive hanger filled with bunkbeds to the colorful winding staircase and the enormous schoolyard where contestants will be forced to play a less deadly version of “Red Light, Green Light.” As for when the show might premiere, the teaser seems to suggest sometime in November of this year.
Let the torture Olympics begin.