The phenomenal success of Squid Game on Netflix in 2021 was always going to lead to more content being made surrounding the show. The Korean thriller managed to strike gold with its first season, and it did not take long for the series to become an international hit. It’s hard to put your finger on the reasons that the show was such a success, but of course, the idea of a game show that kills you seemed to resonate with lots of people. Although YouTube’s Mr Beast would beat them to the punch, Netflix has dropped Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality game show that recreates the games from Squid Game and drops four hundred and fifty-six players into the same scenario as the TV series. Naturally, after waiting so long for more content from the universe, some fans are mistakenly assuming that the reality show is Squid Game Season 2.
The players are real people from all over the world, not actors, and thankfully they are not killed over the course of the game. But there is a blurring between the two shows, so let’s unpack that here.
Is Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 of Squid Game?
No, Squid Game: The Challenge is not a sequel to Squid Game. It is a separate spin-off series that is based on the game aspect of the TV series, but it is not Season 2.
It is easy to see why the show could initially be confused with being a sequel, as the first episode does lean into the familiar imagery of the series — slick, glossy, fully scored, and using the graphics, costumes, and sets of the original series. We see the masked guards and the control room of the show, and we are shown interviews with some of the players, mentioning the money they can win, and the hardships they face.
As the first game, “Red Light, Green Light” begins, you can see the scope of the show. This is a high-budget production, and again we are privy to some of the conversations between the players.
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As players are eliminated, they use a black ink squib to represent the player being eliminated, and the scene is scored with an over-the-top operatic soundtrack and players fall to the floor in slow motion. It is all very filmic.
However, this is a spin-off to the show, and not in any way a continuation of the narrative established in the first season.
A second season of Squid Game has been green-lit, no pun intended, and with production well underway, it will probably not be long until we can watch the second season of the iconic show.
Is Squid Game: The Challenge a spin-off?
Yes, the show is a spin-off from the first season of the show, using the games played by the characters in the series, and placing real people in the scenario the characters encountered.
The games featured in the series are all based on real Korean children’s games, and the reality show uses the games, as well as adding a few more. The contestants are all real people, not acted, and how they behave during the game is apparently not scripted.
What are the games in Squid Game?
The animatronic doll from the game Red Light, Green Light, recreated for Squid: Game the challenge using a 3D printer | Image via Netflix
The series featured children’s games from South Korean culture, including a variation of “Red Light, Green Light”, where players have to remain motionless when a giant doll’s head revolves to watch them. This is commonly known elsewhere as “Grandma’s Footsteps”.
Another game is Dalgona Sugar Honeycombs, where players try to scrape shapes out of dalgona candy with a needle and their tongue — any breakages mean failure, and the shapes have different levels of complexity, meaning that all kinds of backstabbing goes on to try and avoid the deadly umbrella.
There’s also a traditional tug-of-war competition, with teams of players pulling others over the edge of a platform, a game using glass marbles, which produced pretty much the best episode of the original series, and a hopscotch-style game, with collapsing panels in a high bridge.
Squid Game: The Challenge also includes some activities — also based on children’s games — that weren’t in the main series, like a game of Battleship.
