‘Squid Game’ Creator Concerned About Reality TV Spin-Off

Squid Game

The hit Netflix series Squid Game presented a fictional reality competition. People suffering great debt signed up to compete in children’s games. The person who won it all received millions of dollars and was set up for life. However, everyone else was killed.

Now, Netflix has created a real-life reality series based on Squid Game. It seems strange to create a reality TV show to win money based on the story told in Squid Game, and the man who created the original show has given his concerns about the show.

Squid Game-influenced reality TV show coming

A new reality TV competition series is coming based on Squid Game. The good news is no one will die on this show like in the original, which also just got renewed for Season 2. Squid Game: The Challenge is also offering $4.56 million in prize money, the biggest grand prize in reality TV competition history.

Squid Game
Photo Credit: Noh Juhan | Netflix

A worldwide casting search will bring in 456 players to compete. This is the same as the fictional game on the show. Netflix revealed in the announcement that players will have to test their physical and intellectual capability in games inspired by Squid Game. More so, there will also be “terrifying new creations.”

This seems strange considering what Netflix’s Squid Game was really about. There is $4.56 million in prize money, and people sign up to play the game to win this money. However, Squid Game is an anti-capitalist satire. People are willing to die to win money. Now, the show has spawned a reality TV series where people will go to any length to win a fortune.

The show’s original creator calls it ‘problematic’

Squid Game won big at the Emmys. Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor ever to win lead actor in a drama. He was also the fourth Asian person ever to win an acting Emmy. Hwang Dong-hyuk became the first Asian director to win the drama series category. He was also the first director ever to win for a non-English-language series.

Squid Game
Photo Credit: Noh Juhan | Netflix

“I think that even though our show does carry quite a heavy message — and I know that there are some concerns of taking that message and creating it into a reality show with a cash prize,” Hwang said at the Emmys. “However, I feel like when you take things too seriously, that’s really not the best way to go for the entertainment industry. It doesn’t really set a great precedent.”

He said reproducing the show’s games, knowing what they meant in the series, will bring “new meaning to the industry.” Finally, he noted that he hopes the show will be a great new direction for the reality TV genre.

Are you interested in watching the reality TV Squid Game series? More so, do you think it is problematic? Let us know in the comments below.

Shawn Lealos
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