Contestants from Squid Game: The Challenge are threatening to sue Netflix after claiming they were injured during filming.
Earlier this week, Netflix dropped their highly-anticipated reality version of Korean thriller Squid Game.
The 10-part reality series recreates the outfits and sets, although the deadly consequences from the individual games are replaced with an elimination-style competition.
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Phew.
Each elimination adds $10,000 (£7,977) to a $4.56 million (£3.66 million) prize pot, which is being dubbed as the largest amount of money in reality TV history.
However, since the release of the show on Wednesday (22 November), two contestants are threatening legal action against Netflix and their producers.
Two unnamed players have realised a statement via a British personal injuries law firm, Express Solicitors, who are representing them.
They claim that they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage while filming during cold conditions in the UK.
Netflix did confirm that three of the 456 players required medical attention while filming at Cardington Studios, a former Royal Air Force base in Bedford.
Express Solicitors CEO Daniel Slade said this in a statement: “We recognise people may see this as a classic David and Goliath battle with the company and its production partners.
“Contestants thought they were taking part in something fun and those injured did not expect to suffer as they did. Now they have been left with injuries after spending time being stuck in painful stress positions in cold temperatures.”
A spokesperson for Squid Game: The Challenge said: “No lawsuit has been filed by any of the Squid Game contestants. We take the welfare of our contestants extremely seriously.”
LADbible has contacted Netflix and Studio Lambert for comment.
Despite the off-screen controversy, on-screen, critics largely seem to be enjoying the new show.
The Guardian said: "The real-life version of the Netflix drama is a grandiose, addictive spectacle that will have you shouting at your TV before the end of episode one."
The Independent also compared the show to BBC’s hit reality series The Traitors, saying: “For all that the ghost of its Korean cousin sticks in the mind, this is little more than a combination of The Traitors and Takeshi’s Castle.”
However, trade paper The Hollywood Reporter was less impressed, saying: “It exists to cash in on one of the streamer’s biggest-ever hits, the 2021 South Korean scripted drama Squid Game. In that context, it looks not like a one-off curiosity, but like a brand extension that fundamentally misunderstands what the brand was meant to represent in the first place.”
Viewers also took to social media this week to call out on of the show's contestants, Bryton, branding him a 'bully'.
In response to the backlash, Bryton said: "I know my personality isn't that easy to like, especially in an environment like that,
"Them calling me a villain, I kind of knew it was going to happen, so I wasn't that surprised. I wasn't hurt by it. It didn't really affect me because I already knew it was going to happen."
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, UK News
Anish Vij