🚨🚨🚨 Major spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge ahead. 🚨🚨🚨
All episodes of Netflix's highly anticipated reality game show Squid Game: The Challenge are out. The 10-episode series quickly skyrocketed to the top of the streamer's trending list, and people are on the edge of their seats over who will win the $4.56 million cash prize.
But how did the studio pull off reframing a globally recognized television show into a competition series filled with massive sets, hundreds of contestants, and war-waging emotions? Well, we rounded up behind-the-scenes facts shared in Making Squid Game: The Challenge and by the players themselves.
1. To make things fair during the Red Light, Green Light game, all contestants wore a tracker that helped cameras spot them. Over 16 cameras were then used to detect movement — such as extra yards walked during red light, extra shifting caused by the body catching itself while the feet are planted, and general fidgeting.
These movements, referred to as "events," were tracked and then sent to individual humans who rewatched the clip to corroborate whether there was indeed movement before elimination.
2. Arguably, one of the most frustrating moments in Red Light, Green Light was when player 385 froze in a squat and then seemingly gave up their position after a short while. However, contestants have since come out to say the entire filming for Red Light, Green Light lasted hours, and players would have to hold their positions for 30–40 minutes at a time. So 385 deserves a lot of credit for lasting as long as they did!
3. Unlike in the scripted series, where contestants ran on sand, participants of the challenge competed on carpet. Not just for the aesthetic — but because running would have kicked up sand and set off the tracking cameras.
4. When participants are eliminated, a pack of liquid on their chest is detonated. This gives off an illusion of being shot, as in the original series. However, despite debating between black liquid or a more crimson blood red, creators opted for black because it's reminiscent of squid ink, as a nod to the title. (Also, it's less graphic.)
5. You might think that producers, when thinking of the hardest game to re-create, would say the Glass Bridge or, perhaps, Red Light, Green Light. But it was Dalgona. Why? Because a cookie can snap in the blink of an eye, making everyone's elimination incredibly hard to catch on film.
And that's not all! Hundreds of completely identical cookies were also hard to make. The games team went through several recipe iterations — first they were too brittle, then they were too sticky. The glucose levels were changed, and then the baking soda measurements were changed. All of the shapes had to be stamped at exactly the same depth to make things fair. It took 19 variations to get the recipe and formatting exactly right.
6. Fairness was key in the competition, and when it came to the original series, the most unfair game was tug-of-war, which relies heavily on strength...
...so, to level the playing field, game creators opted for Battleship instead because it's still a team-based game.
7. You may have noticed this Easter egg. Before entering Glass Bridge, players deviated from the original series by using a claw machine to pick out their crossing order instead of choosing from mannequins. This was a callback to Seong Gi-hun's own claw machine gamble as he attempted to win a prize for his daughter.
8. And of course we can't discuss Glass Bridge without discussing player 278, who appears to refuse the "one jump per player" agreement the group settles on, thereby pressuring player 301 to make multiple jumps and ultimately fall. However, on an episode of the JustinTime 4 StoryTime podcast, player 286 said that wasn't the case.
Instead, he claims 301 "lost sight of the plan" when it was time to start, and started jumping on their own accord. But 286 says the footage was later edited to appear as though 278 wasn't cooperating. If true, this also explains why no one was upset with 278 after the game, besides the person who was last to jump, who 286 said was too far back to see everything that took place.
9. Speaking of player 301, who fell after the tension, he shared a little behind-the-scenes knowledge on TikTok, saying the players didn't actually fall through the glass. Instead, players were instructed to squat "really fast," and stunt performers fell for the cameras.
10. Participating players remained immersed in the game throughout the filming — meaning they did not go home, wrap, or leave the facility unless they were eliminated or crowned the winner.
According to producers, this was done for cohesiveness but also so that hard decisions would be based not just on strategy but also on morality and the friendships they'd formed.
11. Speaking of strategy vs. morality, the original Squid Game series was full of moments where contestants could take out other players outside of the games (mainly by killing them). So the creators of Squid Game: The Challenge presented similar opportunities by introducing moments when players could get rid of their personal enemies or show loyalty.
12. According to player 035, participants were not directly instructed to "play dead," as you may have assumed after watching everyone's dramatic eliminations. Instead, they say, producers advised that the more "dramatic" they acted when losing, the more likely the footage was to make it into the show.
13. Guards had to learn a kind of choreography on how to stand and walk so that they would all be in unison and appear menacing.
14. And finally, fan favorite and member of the Gganbu Gang player 232 swore that he'd be getting a Squid Game–themed tattoo in honor of his time on the show...
...and he got it!
