Contestants participating in a real-life version of the competitions from Squid Game have not had the best of times, maybe underlining why doing a real-life Squid Game could not be the best idea.
The show was a mega-hit on Netflix in 2021, bringing in a massive audience and giving plenty the idea that they'd like to participate in something similar themselves, albeit without getting killed at the end.
With that in mind, it was only natural that someone would put together a real-life Squid Game experience for people to try as contestants, though unfortunately it seems as though some people were injured while participating.
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Unlike the sadistic games on show in Squid Game, this real-life version is fortunately not deadly to contestants who end up getting knocked out of the running.
The punishment for failure in Squid Game was getting killed, either through being shot by the guards, falling to your death in either the tug-of-war or glass bridge games, or being killed by another contestant in the final game.
Luckily for the people in the real-life version, contestants who lose these Squid Games are just out of the competition for good and lose their chance to clinch the prize money available at the end of the show.
Netflix is working on Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality show set in the UK which follows contestants who are competing in real-life versions of the challenges from the series in the hopes of winning £3.7 million ($4.56m).
Just like the original Squid Game, the format brings 456 people together so they can all compete for the prize via non-lethal versions of the games we saw on the Netflix show.
It's the biggest prize pot in the history of reality TV, but that may have caused some problems as people reportedly got injured pushing themselves to stay in the game for the sake of the money.
The Sun claims things got so bad that some people had to be stretchered away after standing for hours in below freezing temperatures in an emulation of the opening 'Red Light, Green Light' challenge from Squid Game.
They spoke to a contestant who said 'people left in tears' while some had to call for medics and one person left on a stretcher and others were crawling over the finish line.
Another contestant said they were supplied with thermal clothing to try and keep warm as it was 'freezing' on the filming location, along with a 'blood vest' which explodes and simulates being shot if someone gets knocked out.
Netflix, along with producers Studio Lambert and The Garden, have responded to the event in a statement to reassure people that nobody was seriously injured in the real-life Squid Game.
They said: "While it was very cold on set – and participants were prepared for that – any claims of serious injury are untrue.
"We care deeply about the health and safety of our cast and crew, and invested in all the appropriate safety procedures."
Contestants have flown in from across the world to compete in Squid Game: The Challenge, which is being filmed at Cardington Studios, a former RAF base in Bedford.
As for the actual Squid Game show, a second season is on the way after we were teased with a return to the games at the end of the final episode, while creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said there had been talks over a potential third season after that.
Topics: UK News, Netflix, TV and Film
Joe Harker