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There are many interesting things in Squid Game: The Challenge. Netflix's newest reality juggernaut follows in the footsteps of Squid Game , one of the streamer's biggest shows of all time, by bringing the drama series competition to life—456 contestants will enter the game in hopes of winning a life-changing $4.56 million prize. the largest prize in North American game show history. The series, which was filmed at a giant London studio in January and premiered on November 22, has faced a lot of controversy. Fans of the original show criticized Netflix for seemingly misunderstanding the point of Squid Game, namely that humans should not have to sacrifice themselves and their morality to earn enough money to live. However, Tim Harcourt, executive producer on Squid Game: The Challenge, said that the message was just a comment on the drama series, and the reality show was different. “You could criticize the Star Wars outing for ignoring the fact that Star Wars is an allegory about rebellion against an evil empire. That's one aspect of Star Wars,” Harcourt told The Daily Beast's Obsessed over Zoom. “But that doesn't eliminate the possibility of getting further [the story] out of it.” Further backlash against Squid Game: The Challenge comes after a Rolling Stone exposé in February that included testimony from players who called the show the “meanest, meanest” competition ever and accused it of being “rigged.” The executives behind the series denied the claims. Stephen Lambert, another executive producer on the series, said that being neutral is actually a hallmark of the reality show. “What's important is that this is a game where Netflix is giving away the biggest [reality show] prize ever,” Lambert said. “It has to be very fair. They actually actually have to play the game, and they have to play it once. There is no repetition of the game at all. If we don’t get it, we don’t get it—which means we have a lot of cameras.” Below, EPs Harcourt, Lambert, and John Hay tease a surprising new contest coming to Squid Game: The Challenge , as well as what they're looking for from those 456 “lucky” contestants—if you want to sign up for Season 2 — and why the show is still worth watching amidst some controversy. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. When I started Squid Game: The Challenge, I kept wondering, “Wouldn't everyone benefit, knowing what game is coming next and how to play it, thanks to Squid Game?” But they are complicated in the show! How do you find ways to make The Challenge unique? John Hay: The challenge is how to deliver the right mix of familiarity and surprise. Surprises are clearly one of the essence of this drama, endless rug pulls. However, people come to Squid Game wanting this. One of our colleagues [said] that it was like seeing your favorite band. If they don't play their hits, you'll be disappointed. If all they play is the hits, you will be disappointed. You have to get the right balance between the two. Tim Harcourt: The new thing we are bringing to Squid Game is pre-games, which we call “character tests”. For the pre-game, all we need to do is mislead the contestants so they don't realize what game they're about to enter. We know that everyone must have watched this series. We knew that everyone was going to be looking for, “Oh, this is the moment where they try to separate us into tug-of-war and into Dalgona.” [Pre-match] should encourage alliances or force people to join their alliances or even destroy their alliances. Another thing we wanted them to do was reveal the characters in a way that we felt couldn't be done in the game. In the game, there is a degree of luck. There are a few skills, but they don't reveal characters in a big way like some games can. Can you explain more about what you mean by “revealing character”? Stephen Lambert: As a starting point, we didn't have a script. If you watch a drama [series], the script does a lot of the work. It knows who the hero is and follows the hero, but the script divides the characters into different groups. This makes the groups reflect the personalities of the characters within the group and the tensions between them. Since we didn't have a script, we had to find other ways to reveal the character that would bring out moral ambiguity and opportunities for betrayal, all the things the script did [in the original show]. • Many of Squid Game's challenges are renditions of childhood contests. When you create new games and lay out the blueprint for The Challenge, do you use the younger generation as inspiration? Hay: After [ Squid Game ] became a global phenomenon, we wanted our version to be a global show, a global opportunity. We do go back to our childhood when we think of new games and everything. But then we do a second layer of checking to see if this is a game that is loved around the world. Of course, you don't want to present a game that everyone in the UK knows, but no one else knows. There's a mix of instinct and scrutiny behind it. What were you looking for when selecting those lucky 456 people? Harcourt: We're used to doing reality shows with 15 to 20 characters, and that's usually a huge amount of work. In the back of your mind, you think, “Are they going to win? Is that the right mix?” All those principles apply to this, but this principle is too big. In smaller casts, we look for a mix of people—and that's no different here. We wanted a broad spectrum of people, by age, by background, mostly Americans, as you can probably tell from the cast. That's something the network is very interested in. There are a small number of players from all over the world. Plus, there's a basic level of fitness, suitability to face the rigors of the game and the world, and [going for] 17 days too, if you win. You are isolated and living in the immersive world of East London. [There are also] boring things like being available at that time for that amount of time. Lambert: We broke all the rules, because the absolute conventional wisdom is that you can't do a reality show with more than 20 people. Netflix said to us, “No, no, we want to do it like a drama, we want 456.” We were like, “You must be crazy.” The problem with 456, again, is the difference between scripted shows and unscripted shows. In scripted shows, they can concentrate on the characters they have written in the script. We didn't know who we should follow because the people we thought, “They're such good characters; let's concentrate our energies on following them,” they are often eliminated very quickly.