Netflix decided that two seasons of its popular “class allegory via murder†show Squid Game isn’t enough. It now must be real. A new reality competition show based on the Korean hit Squid Game called Squid Game: The Challenge is under way. “456 real players will enter the game in pursuit of a life-changing reward of $4.56 million,†Netflix said in a press release. “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.†We’re expecting the “surprising new additions†to include things like hopscotch, double Dutch, and running your friends over with cars. The teaser for the show largely focuses on the iconography of the literal murderers who made such an impact in the original.
Squid Game is a show about a show in which wealthy elites pay to watch people who are desperately in debt compete for money with their lives at stake. But don’t worry! Netflix made sure we know that “in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed.†Thank you, Netflix. We were worried you were going to kill the impoverished off for real. Even if nobody’s dying, turning the capitalism-skeptical fictional world “into reality in this massive competition and social experiment†is kind of ominous! Keep an eye out for a real-life Hunger Games appearing on Paramount+ sometime soon.