NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE<\/span> More backlash for Squid Game: The Challenge <\/em>came after a February Rolling Stone<\/em> expos\u00e9<\/a> included testimonies from players who referred to the show as the \u201ccruelest, meanest\u201d competition ever and accused it of being \u201crigged.\u201d The execs behind the series denied these claims. Stephen Lambert, another executive producer on the series, says that remaining impartial is actually a hallmark of the reality show. So once you whittled the cast down to 456, how did you figure out who would be a main character and who would be peripheral?<\/strong>
The anticipated game show\u2019s executive producers chatted about how they picked 456 contestants, creating new games, and what they think of the show\u2019s controversies.
Entertainment Reporter
There\u2019s a lot riding on Squid Game: The Challenge<\/em><\/a>. Netflix\u2019s latest reality behemoth follows in the footsteps of Squid Game<\/em><\/a>, one of the streamer\u2019s biggest shows of all time, by bringing the drama series\u2019 competition to life\u2014456 contestants will enter the games with the hopes of winning a life-changing $4.56 million, the largest prize in North American game show history.
The series, was filmed in a mammoth studio in London in January and premieres Nov. 22, has already faced a litany of controversies<\/a>. Fans of the original show have criticized Netflix<\/a> for seemingly misunderstanding the entire point of Squid Game<\/em>, which was that humans shouldn\u2019t have to sacrifice themselves and their morality to earn enough money to live. But Tim Harcourt, an executive producer on Squid Game: The Challenge<\/em>, says that message was commentary in the drama series alone, and that the reality show is different.
\u201cYou could criticize a Star Wars ride as ignoring the fact that Star Wars is an allegory about an uprising over an evil empire. That is one aspect of Star Wars,\u201d Harcourt tells The Daily Beast\u2019s Obsessed over Zoom. \u201cBut that doesn't negate the possibility of deriving further [stories] from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key thing is that this was a game where Netflix was giving away the largest [reality show] prize ever,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cIt had to be incredibly fair. They actually really had to play the games, and they had to play them once. There was no retaking any bits of the game. If we didn't get it, we didn't get it\u2014which meant we had a lot of cameras.\u201d
Below, EPs Harcourt, Lambert, and John Hay tease the surprising new contests to come in Squid Game: The Challenge<\/em>, as well as what they were looking for in those \u201clucky\u201d 456 contestants\u2014in case you want to apply for Season 2\u2014and why the show is still worth watching amidst its handful of controversies.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em>
When I started <\/strong>Squid Game: The Challenge<\/strong><\/em>, I kept wondering, \u201cIsn\u2019t everyone at an advantage, knowing what game comes next and how to play them, thanks to <\/strong>Squid Game<\/strong><\/em>?\u201d But they\u2019re tricky in the show! How did you find ways to make <\/strong>The Challenge <\/strong><\/em>unique?<\/strong>
John Hay:<\/strong> The challenge, in a way, is how to deliver the right mixture of familiarity and surprise. Surprise is obviously one of the keynotes of the drama, the endless rug pulls. And yet, people are coming to this wanting Squid Game<\/em>. One of our colleagues [said] that it was a bit like seeing your favorite band. If they don't play the greatest hits, you're going to be upset. If all they play is the greatest hits, you're going to be upset. You\u2019ve got to get the balance right between the two.
Tim Harcourt:<\/strong> The things that we brought to Squid Game <\/em>that were new were the pre-games, what we called the \u201ctests of character.\u201d For the pre-games, what we needed to do was to wrongfoot the contestants so they didn't realize what game they were about to go into. We knew that everyone would have watched the series. We knew that everyone would be looking for, \u201cOh, this is the moment where they're trying to separate us into tug of war and to Dalgona<\/a>.\u201d [The pre-games] had to drive alliances or force people into their alliances or even to break their alliances. The other thing we wanted them to do was to be revealing of character in a way that we felt that the games couldn't be. In the games, there's a degree of luck. There's a little bit of skill, but they're not massively revealing of character in the way that some games can be.
Can you say more on what you mean by \u201crevealing of character\u201d?<\/strong>
Stephen Lambert:<\/strong> As a starting point, we didn't have a script. If you watch the drama [series], the script\u2019s doing quite a lot of work. It knows who the hero is and it's following the hero, but the script is breaking the characters into different groups. It's making those groups reflect the personalities of the characters in those groups and the tension between them. Because we didn't have a script, we had to find other ways of revealing characters that would bring out moral ambiguity and the opportunity for betrayal, all the kinds of things that the script was doing [in the original show].
A lot of the <\/strong>Squid Game <\/strong><\/em>challenges are brought out of childhood contests. When you were creating new games and laying out the blueprints for <\/strong>The Challenge<\/strong><\/em>, did you draw upon youth as an inspiration?<\/strong>
Hay:<\/strong> Once [Squid Game<\/em>] had become a global phenomenon, we wanted our version to be a global show, a global opportunity. We did go back into our own childhoods when we were brainstorming new games and everything. But then we had a second layer of checking that these were games that resonated around the world. Obviously, you don't want to present a game that every Brit knows, but no one else does. There was a mixture of instinct and checking behind it.
What were you looking for when you cast those lucky 456 people?<\/strong>
Harcourt:<\/strong> We're used to casting reality shows with 15 to 20 characters, and that's normally a huge, humongous undertaking. In the back of your mind, you\u2019re thinking, \u201cAre they going to win? Are they the right mix?\u201d All of those principles applied to this, but it\u2019s completely supersized. In a smaller cast, we\u2019re looking for a mix of people\u2014and that's no different here. We wanted a broad spectrum of people, age-wise, background, predominantly American, as you can probably tell from the cast. That was something that the network was very keen on. There were little pockets of cast from around the world.
Aside from that, there were basic levels of fitness, suitability to being exposed to the rough and tumble of the games and the world, and being [gone for] 17 days as well, if you win. You\u2019re isolated and living in this immersive world in East London. [There were also] boring things like being available at that time of year for that amount of time.
Lambert:<\/strong> We were breaking all the rules, because the absolute conventional wisdom is you can't do a reality show with more than 20 people. Netflix said to us, \u201cNo, no, we want to do it like the drama, we want 456.\u201d We were like, \u201cYou must be mad.\u201d The problem with 456 is, again, the difference between a scripted show and an unscripted show. In the scripted show, they can concentrate on the characters that they have written in the script. We had no idea who to follow because the people that we thought, \u201cThey're a particularly good character; let's concentrate our energies on following them,\u201d they very often got eliminated very quickly.<\/p>\n
Lambert:<\/strong> That was the real problem. How are you going to deal with the fact that you might find that character you\u2019re interested in, but they then suddenly disappear? We've got to pass the baton on to somebody else. Partly, it was to do with the quality of the interviews that we did. There were two kinds of interviews. There were the interviews that were done with the guys wearing their tracksuits, and they were talking about what had happened in the show. But there were the other kinds of interviews where they were in the clothes that they'd come in with to play the game. And they were talking not about the game, they were talking about their lives. And [some] were amazingly revealing in those interviews. It meant that we were able to introduce characters.
There have been several controversies swirling around <\/strong>Squid Game: The Challenge<\/strong><\/em>. Some folks think it misses the political point of <\/strong>Squid Game<\/strong><\/em>, while others just don\u2019t believe it can top the original. What would you say to these skeptical potential views to convince them it\u2019s still worth watching?<\/strong>
Hay:<\/strong> That\u2019s one dimension of the drama [series]. It\u2019s not the only thing the drama\u2019s about. The aspect of it that made it appeal to all of us is that it\u2019s an incredible mechanism for looking at human nature under pressure. That\u2019s universal, isn\u2019t it? That sits at the heart of a lot of great drama and a lot of great unscripted [shows]. Also, we flipped ours. \u2026 Our version is driven by opportunity, rather than being driven by need. Millions of people watched the drama, a lot of them thinking, like a lot of us did, \u201cWhat would I do if I were in that situation?\u201d
This show isn\u2019t like <\/strong>Survivor<\/strong><\/em>, where contestants are starved. But the conditions they stayed under also weren\u2019t great, as players have said in interviews. We see them complain about their hunger, and contestants fight over a burger in one scene. How did you decide what their living situation would look like?<\/strong>
Hay: <\/strong>I wouldn't even say it was quite calculated. We were being faithful to the drama [series]. It did a lot of that thinking for us. In the drama, everyone is in the dorm and gets basic rations. So we matched the dorm and basic rations. That felt like it was true to the spirit of the Squid Game <\/em>world.
Did you use any of the original props from <\/strong>Squid Game<\/strong><\/em>?<\/strong>
Harcourt: <\/strong>We didn't use any of the original props. We had to make our own tracksuits, and we had a difficult time getting the color right. There were all these debates about, \u201cOh, is that the green?\u201d Eventually we said, \u201cJust send us your tracksuits from the drama. We want to recreate them.\u201d Director Hwang [Dong-hyuk] and his team were really kind\u2014they gave us [all the color dimensions].
Hay:<\/strong> Also, we had various challenges that they didn't. For example, the doll, the recreation of that was an enormous technical feat. It was done in the biggest 3D printing facility in the UK. Our doll\u2019s head had to turn sufficiently faster so that it was fair. If it was a gradual turn, then the people on one side would have had an advantage. It had to be a very swift turn. But then if it was too swift, the head just came off. The Dalgona biscuits, which we all thought were going to be one of the easiest things to do, took 19 goes to get the recipe right. They can\u2019t go soft when you expose them to the air. You\u2019ve got to be mindful of everyone's allergens.
"Squid Game: The Challenge. Episode 102 of Squid Game: The Challenge. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix \u00a9 2023"
Everyone wants to know about the cast, but I\u2019m curious about the guards. Were those producers or actors?<\/strong>
Harcourt:<\/strong> They were extras. We hired them for the duration to be our guards. We realized very quickly that we needed them to move and act in unison, not just to look visually great, but also to help create menace. We had a choreographer in with them to work really hard to make sure they were all acting and moving as one.
Is there anything else diehard <\/strong>Squid Game <\/strong><\/em>fans should know before they watch?<\/strong>
Harcourt: <\/strong> Our mantra for the whole show has been this line: \u201cHow you play is who you are.\u201d Our hope is that that comes through. We wanted to make it an exciting show. But also, our attraction to it in the first place was a way of revealing character under pressure. If we\u2019ve managed to do that, then we\u2019re happy.
Entertainment Reporter
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