Netflix's Controversial Squid Game Competition Series Shows Off Pivotal Scene Recreation In First Trailer

Netflix has released its first full look at its upcoming Squid Game: The Challenge competition series. The streamer giant faithfully replicated the hit drama's challenges as 456 contestants compete for $4.56 million in a show that Netflix is calling "the biggest competition ever."

As you can see from the trailer below, the sets and challenges look exactly like the sleeper hit, with a few differences in how the games are played. At one point, the contestants have to vote two people actually out of the game entirely.

Of course, the show has been attached to some extreme controversy due not only to its subject matter, but an incident that led to contestants seeking medical attention during filming. The Sun posted a story back in January describing how contestants on the competition show had been left freezing in an airplane hanger in Bedford, playing a game where they had to hold statue-like poses for almost 30 minutes while playing Red Light, Green Light. Any movement from the contestants would result in a squib going off on them, eliminating them from the game.

Netflix was quick to quelch the reports of a contestant being stretchered out saying that it "cared deeply" about the health and safety of the cast and crew. Netflix did admit, that the environment was cold but all of the "participants were prepared for that."

However, one former contestant told Rolling Stone that the games were fixed and insisted they were treated poorly. "It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I've ever been through," they said. "We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed."

That wasn't everyone's experience as another contestant added that it wasn't the game's fault people suffered and boiled down to the streamer's actual planning, or lack thereof. "All the torment and trauma we experienced wasn't due to the game or the rigor of the game. It was the incompetencies of scale--they bit off more than they could chew."

You can check out Squid Game: The Challenge on November 22, only on Netflix.