The creators of the real-life Squid Game spin-off have revealed a significant alteration made due to sensitivity concerns.
When the exciting South Korean dystopian drama debuted on Netflix in 2021, it caught the globe by storm, and it is now being brought to life.
Squid Game: The Challenge follows 456 genuine players from all across the world as they compete for a record-breaking cash reward of $4.56 million (£3.725 million).
They’ll be battling in horrific tasks until there’s just one person left standing – but it won’t be as gloomy as the original, when players are killed off one by one.
In truth, the show’s production firm has made significant changes from the original series.
When targeted in the games, instead of being’shot’ and ‘bleeding’ red ink, the participants will witness black ink erupting from their outfits.
‘The fact that the prize is so big is the solution of how you adapt a drama that is about being shot when you can’t shoot them,’ Studio Lambert founder Stephen Lambert said.
He continued to Radio Times: ‘The prize is life-changing. So, when you are eliminated, the dreams that come from entering just die.
‘The fear of that happening drives how the contestants play the game and interact.’
He joked that there was “general agreement at the beginning” that candidates getting murdered was not a good idea, and that playing the game as it was in the drama “throws up a lot of problems.”
Studio Lambert chose a different method to avoid appearing ‘gory’ in the wake of gun violence and horrible school shootings in America, as well as current wars in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas.
‘The decision was made that on the squibs the players wear that explode when they are eliminated, the liquid should not be red, but black… It’s never gory,’ Stephen said.
A scary teaser promoting the impending reality series debuted earlier this year, beginning with a weird robotic doll singing as the set for the series begins to light up, with the masked guys shown seated behind computer screens observing the participants.
One then calls the players to attention: ‘You will now compete for our biggest cash prize in reality show history.’
As the streaming service teases, the series follows on from the ‘biggest Netflix show ever’ to become ‘the biggest reality show ever’.
Some of the participants are then shown watching the money fall into an orb hanging above them, indicating that they are now in the running to win a life-changing sum of money.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ one of them shouts.
Following that, several video show them participating in a variety of tasks, including one in which participants are fleeing for their lives in Red Light, Green Light.
Another hopeful says: ‘People do a whole lot worse for a whole lot less.’
Squid Game: The Challenge starts on November 22 on Netflix.
