Netflix Has Its Most Popular Show’s Actors Working In Life-Threatening Conditions
Squid Game: The Challenge is facing allegations of extreme conditions on the set of the new reality series.
Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge reality series is supposed to be just like the original Squid Game series except without, you know, all the dying. But recent reports allege the show may not be as far from its dangerous inspiration as we thought. According to Deadline, temperatures on the UK set dropped below freezing during shooting one day. But, don’t believe the headlines just yet – according to Netflix, “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,” Netflix’s official statement continues. However, contestants on the Squid Game reality series reportedly felt “unwell,” with some even allegedly suffering from frostbite.
On the episode of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge in question, players were involved in a game of Red Light, Green Light, during which they had to remain (figuratively) frozen in place for hours at a time. Unlike in the original series, those who moved were not hit by a blast of gunfire, but those who stayed still may have suffered other consequences.
It is a case of “they said, they said,” with the two parties telling two completely different stories. Netflix says that it was cold, but not dangerously so thanks to the precautions they took. And yet the UK’s The Sun newspaper reported that “Netflix’s real-life version of Squid Game turned into a freezing nightmare with at least one contestant stretchered off and others saying they suffered what felt like frostbite.”
Note the wording there with, “what felt like frostbite.” There are no medical records to back up this claim, meaning that it may have been exaggerated for the papers. The Sun goes on to say that players told them, “It was like a warzone. People left in tears.”
They even said that one player was carried out on a stretcher while the others ended up crawling to the finish line in temperatures that reached -3 degrees Celsius (26 degrees Fahrenheit).
However, the last two issues mentioned could have just been a result of playing a game that lasted hours and involved standing still for extended periods of time, which certainly takes a toll on the body. This is something that has frequently occurred on other reality competition shows like Survivor.
The players desperately want to win the £3.7 million prize (around $4.5 million USD) from Netflix’s Squid Game reality series, and they most likely would have stood there as long as humanly possible regardless of the temperature. With that kind of money on the line, who wouldn’t?
Netflix’s original Squid Game series was an enormous success on the streaming platform, capturing the attention and frightening the pants off of people all around the world to become Netflix’s most popular show of all time. While it was originally intended to be a one-season show, there is reportedly a second season in the works as the platform continues to try to capitalize on the success of the first.
Squid Game: The Challenge was also created with this aim, but unlike Netflix’s original Squid Game, which takes place in South Korea, this one is being filmed in the UK with contestants hailing from all over the globe.
Netflix denies that any of those contestants were harmed due to the filming conditions on set (although three contestants did have mild medical conditions), but one can’t help but wonder if maybe this illusion (or perhaps even reality) of danger is being manufactured just to make the show seem as realistically fearsome as its fictional counterpart.
