Netflix is building a ‘Squid Game’ universe as it waits for a second season
On the same soundstage where Bob Barker helmed “The Price Is Right,” “Squid Game” comes to life.
On Wednesday, Netflix will unveil its latest live experience, based on the dystopian hit show in which desperate South Koreans competed in a brutal competition of simple schoolyard games for a prize of 45.6 billion won (about $38 million). Winners came closer to the money. Losers died. The live attraction recreates both the popular iconography of the series – the enormous piggy bank filled with cash, a giant animatronic doll named Young-hee, the sterile white dorm room – and the childish games.
For $30, fans of “Squid Game” can compete against each other in about 70 minutes of play, with moral twists and six group activities, including the schoolyard race Red Light, Green Light and a non-lethal version of the series’ terrifying sequence. Glass Bridge Challenge, where participants had to choose between two clear squares for each step across a bridge. If they made a wrong choice, they fell hundreds of meters to their death.
To feel even more like a character on the show, customers can purchase a tracksuit for $50 and wear it during the experience. There’s also a $100 VIP ticket option: In a nod to the original, you can watch the hapless masses compete in the games while sipping cocktails in a chic lounge.
“It’s all fun without the death,” said Greg Lombardo, head of live experiences at Netflix.
Netflix plans to expand the live experience to other cities, but no additional locations have been confirmed. It’s one of several “Squid Game” adaptations Netflix has planned in hopes of keeping viewers engaged during the long gap between the show’s first season, which debuted in September 2021, and the second, which aired in South Korea is filmed and released. next year.
One of these is an unscripted English-language competition show, “Squid Game: The Challenge.” The first five episodes debuted on November 22, with a second batch becoming available on Wednesday; the final episode will be released on Wednesday.
There will also soon be a video game where players can compete with characters from the series. A virtual reality game is already available, and in Brazil, Burger King is offering ‘Squid Game’ themed food combinations in four cities. (Get an umbrella-shaped onion ring to go with that shake?)
The brand’s offshoots follow a formula that Netflix has successfully used for other popular shows, such as “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things.” A “Stranger Things” play that the streaming service helped develop will premiere in London’s West End on December 14.
However, the expansion of intellectual property, such as the ‘Squid Game’ brand, is gaining attention in Hollywood. In recent years, the closest an entertainment studio has come to a franchise spawned from a popular piece of intellectual property: a movie spawns a sequel, an amusement park ride spawns a line of consumer products. Now there has been a certain amount of fatigue among the public.
Marvel films like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” struggled at the box office. The recent Harry Potter spin-off, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” and the DC Comics film “The Flash” also underperformed. The industry has been forced to ask itself: What deserves attention when building franchises, and when is it too much?
“I would say in general, if you have IP, if you just do too much of something, it can dilute what it is,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in an interview. “The other thing we’re looking at is, are you true to the DNA of the show and why people loved it, but are you expanding that connection?”
The reasons Netflix is trying to expand ‘Squid Game’ are obvious. Not only is it the most watched show on the platform, but unapproved merchandise from the game, including tracksuits and Young-hee dolls, started selling almost immediately after its debut. Netflix is now working with two global partners to meet the demand for green sportswear, especially around Halloween.
Influencers have also benefited from the show’s popularity. Last year, YouTube star MrBeast recruited 456 participants to compete for $456,000 by playing tug-of-war and Red Light, Green Light. The video containing the content was viewed 112 million times in its first five days online.
With that kind of interest in a remote version of a real-life “Squid Game,” Netflix decided the time was right to try to capitalize with its own reality show, but in English, so as not to confuse audiences.
“I was very curious to see how people would react to those games, the situations, the moral dilemmas,” said Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s head of Asian content, who was responsible for bringing the South Korean show.
Still, some wonder if it is a reality show based on the South Korean filmmaker Hwang Dong Hyuk‘The bleak view of his country’s class struggle and the global inequality of contemporary capitalism should exist at all.
While “Squid Game: The Challenge” debuted at the top of Netflix’s English-language TV chart with 20.1 million views and the original show jumped back into the Top 10, reviews of the reality series were scathing. Most criticized the ten-episode season for missing the broader critique of capitalist culture that is at the heart of the nihilistic series.
“I clearly see it as an attempt to expand and monetize a franchise, but it seems particularly absurd given the show’s anti-capitalist message,” said Miranda Banks, president of the film, television department. and media studies from Loyola Marymount University.
“’Squid Game’ was a South Korean series, and it is intertwined with the politics of South Korean culture,” she added. “So part of this is not only a translation of the genre, but it is also a translation of a nation. And in doing so, it is not surprising – and perhaps quite hilarious – that a pro-capitalist dream is being fulfilled.”
The producers of the reality show are aware of the irony. But they said that by getting as close as possible to the original – the same number of entrants (456) and a life-changing amount of prize money ($4.56 million) – they felt they could create compelling television despite the lower stakes.
“This was a drama that was so much about the fact that people who were eliminated were killed,” said producer Stephen Lambert. “We never intended that, obviously, but having such a big prize pool meant that if you were eliminated, your dreams died, and they were really big dreams that people had.”
(The filming of the reality show has generated its own drama, with complaints from several participants “inhuman” conditions. When asked about the complaints, the producers said in a statement that they “take the well-being of our participants extremely seriously.”)
But does allowing fans to play along with a social satire compromise its integrity?
Mrs. Banks doesn’t believe so.
“I think you probably have the fans who are there for the social commentary, the drama and the state of the game,” she said. “And then you have the people who like to play games. These can be different age groups. It could be different demographics.”
For Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, the brand’s offshoots are doing their job — bringing renewed attention to “Squid Game” — but she recognizes the risks of making so many versions that rely on the same source.
“We have a hugely popular show that basically captures the cultural zeitgeist, but the pop, all the iconography, is taken into the unscripted,” she said. “How do you, as a marketing team, ensure that people understand that this is an unwritten version of that, and not yet the second season? You have to make sure fans follow along: Oh, this is the unscripted version. Oh, this is the live experience. Oh, season 2 is coming.
“The fandom is there. It just allows us to create different moments for each of those things.”