Just days after the streamer formally confirmed the improvement of Squid Game season 2, Netflix has introduced plans to launch “the most important fact competition series ever” withinside the shape of Squid Game: The Challenge a 10-episode game show so one can see 456 contestants battling it out for an almighty $4.56 million coins prize.
“As they compete via a series of video games stimulated with the aid of using the authentic display plus sudden new additions strategies, alliances, and character can be placed to the take a look at whilst competition are eliminated round them,” Netflix wrote in a statement pronouncing the series.
Squid Game: The Challenge is recruiting for members now you could observe yourself here if you’re feeling brave and the show is anticipated to start shooting withinside the UK for as much as four weeks in early 2023. By that schedule, the collection may want to hit Netflix as soon as the second half of the subsequent year.
But let’s now no longer beat approximately the bush: this announcement comes as no surprise. Squid Game became nothing short of a cultural phenomenon for Netflix in 2021, racking up an extraordinary range of viewing hours to turn out to be the largest show withinside the streamer’s history (now no longer even Stranger Things season four may want to vault the bar set with the aid of using Hwang Dong-hyuk’s dystopian survival drama).
Future seasons of Squid Game had been all-however confident following the belief of its 9-episode debut, and the collection’s particular recreation show-style premise led many to agree with that a Squid Game-stimulated Netflix truth manufacturing became additionally a formality.
Now, that reality series is, well, truth and in spite of the inevitable nature of the complete concept, Squid Game: The Challenge nevertheless represents a stroke of genius on the part of a streamer whose current subscriber woes have left it clamoring for new long-term successes.
The Squid Game universe
in contrast, evidently appeals to all types of audiences. There is no question that millions of new and existing subscribers would tune in to watch 456 members of the public running, jumping, and cookie-cutting their way through a string of familiar challenges (YouTube star MrBeast was quick to produce his own unofficial and wildly popular, Squid Game competition(opens in new tab) following the release of the Netflix series last year).
Heck, Squid Game: The Challenge
might prove even more entertaining than its fictional counterpart. What’s more, unlike its source material, the series won’t be bound by narrative logic – meaning it could, in theory, run for as long as viewers remain interested.
Consider the enduring popularity of Love Island, for instance, which remains the benchmark for reality TV in 2022. The UK-produced matchmaking series kicked off way back in 2015 and, seven seasons later, its annual format remains unchanged.
Squid Game: The Challenge
by its nature, could conceivably offer audiences more variety than Love Island by switching up its games year on year – but the point is, it probably won’t need to.
Squid Game: The Challenge’s 456 contestants will make it past which challenges, meaning producers may find it tricky to focus coverage on certain individuals. The audience, therefore, might struggle to form any meaningful connections with participants.
Likewise, given that (we think?) the consequences of failing a challenge won’t mean certain death, it may be difficult for Netflix to develop any meaningful stakes in a show so singularly reliant on the allure of its grand prize (although, in fairness, the majority of the world’s game shows revolve around money).
But these are all bridges Netflix will hope to cross when it comes to them. For now, Squid Game: The Challenge seems like a sure-fire phenomenon and, should it get anywhere close to reaching its mammoth potential, it could lay the groundwork for a slew of IP-based Netflix reality series in the future.
Bridgerton: The Dating Experience? Money Heist: The Break-In? Judging by the number of Netflix-inspired live events and Halloween costumes every year, fans are ready and willing to immerse themselves in the streamer’s fictional worlds.
