Netflix’s Real-Life Squid Game Contestants Injured In Brutal Conditions
A handful of players on the set of the Netflix competition series Squid Game: The Challenge required medical attention because of an unexpected cold snap.
As far as we know, the players on the set of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge aren’t having to deal with live ammunition or being encouraged to engage in gang fights overnight. Regardless, somewhere around four or five players on the competition series needed medical attention recently while playing “Red Light Green Light.” The impacted players weren’t shot by automated guns like the ones in the scripted series, but instead suffered because of the unexpected cold snap in Britain.
According to Variety‘s coverage of the story, the “Red Light Green Light” sequence was filmed at Cardington Studios in Bedford, to the north of London, in a converted aircraft hangar. Such a large space was difficult to keep warm during the recent cold weather in the UK, and sources claimed the cold impacted some of the contestants so much they could barely move. Medics were called to help players a number of times, though accounts differ on the severity of the injuries.
There were early reports that several Squid Game: The Challenge players were taken off set on stretchers, but Netflix vehemently denied those reports. According to Variety, it appears “fewer than five” players on the reality competition show required medical attention and in at least one case the contestant’s injuries had little to do with the cold; instead they hurt their shoulder when they unintentionally ran into a wall.
As anyone who watched Squid Game will remember, “Red Light Green Light” is the very first game the contestants play in the show, in which they must reach a finish line without being “seen” moving by an eerie, automated statue of a little girl. Anyone who is seen moving when the game calls “red light” is immediately killed by hidden automated guns. “Red Light Green Light” is the first time anyone in Squid Game learns their very lives are on the line, and over half of the 456 contestants are eliminated before it’s over.
Squid Game: The Challenge likewise chose 456 contestants to compete for its prize money of $4.56 million and 228 of those players were expected to be eliminated (albeit, not in lethal fashion) during the filming of “Red Light Green Light” this past Monday, rendering that day one of the more crucial days of filming.
Last June, Netflix put out a call for 456 contestants to participate in Squid Game: The Challenge. No doubt, the streamer is hoping to capitalize on its most popular series while fans wait for South Korean creator Hwang Dong-hyuk to write and produce Season 2. As soon as the series was renewed for a second season, Dong-hyuk warned that it wouldn’t be a quick turnaround between chapters, but thankfully for Netflix, the premise of the show allowed it to be easily adapted into a reality competition series.
