Squid Game: The Challenge faces lawsuit from contestants alleging injuries from filming

Contestants who participated in the Squid Game reality TV competition is threatening a lawsuit against the producers, claiming they sustained injuries during filming.

A UK law firm, Express Solicitors, confirmed it represented two unnamed players from the show who said they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage as a result of the conditions during filming.

As reported in The Guardian, Express Solicitors chief executive Daniel Slade said, “Contestants thought they were taking part in something fun and those injured did not expect to suffer as they did. Now they have been left with injuries after spending time being stuck in painful stress positions in cold temperatures.”

Squid Game: The Challenge was released this week on Netflix. The series was inspired by the blockbuster Korean social thriller and restaged the fictional drama’s deadly children’s games in a competition in which 456 contestants vie for a $US4.56 million cash prize.

The show has been dogged by accusations of horrific conditions since the start of the year when the series was being filmed in the UK during the dead of winter. At the time, several contestants spoke with UK and US publications including Variety, Rolling Stone and The Sun detailing their experiences.

The complaints centre on the show’s first game, a recreation of Squid Game’s Red Light, Green Light challenge. Players must run towards a finish line on the other side of the room but every time a giant doll turns around, everyone must freeze in position. Anyone found to be moving is eliminated from the game.

The clock on the game is five minutes and contestants are asked to freeze for a few seconds at a time.

Two unnamed players from the show said they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage. Credit: Supplied/COURTESY OF NETFLIX

In reality, the sequence took between seven and eight hours to film and players had to hold their poses for up to 30 minutes in below-freezing temperatures.

Contestants earlier claimed producers had told them the game would take two hours to film and they would have to hold poses for two minutes.

The filming took place inside a disused military hangar in Bedford, England.

There had been a cold snap and temperatures plummeted to minus three degrees.

In earlier reports, contestants told media that had been given thermals but had on top only a thin tracksuit which they had to leave unzipped. Heat packs that were provided before filming were taken away once cameras rolled.

After the first reports alleging unsafe conditions, Netflix at the time denied claims multiple ambulances had been called and said three people had been treated for minor conditions.

Squid Game: The Challenge is streaming on Netflix. Credit: Supplied/COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Before the potential lawsuit was made public, Squid Game: The Challenge producers did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to address criticism of the show and of the filming experience.

John Hay told THR, “Welfare and safety are obviously paramount for us. And we’ve taken appropriate measures to look after people. The particular criticism you’re about was centred around the filming of Red Light, Green Light. That was a big, complicated shoot and it was a cold day, and it took quite a long time.

“But everyone was prepared for that and looked after properly. We anticipated and actually strenuously tested everything in advance and made sure we took all the proper measures.”

Producer Stephen Lambert added, “We’re giving away the largest prize in TV competition history. It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to win $US4.56 million… [being on the show] was a lot nicer and easier than an awful lot of unscripted shows – compared to some of the survival shows that have been made or compared to a whole bunch of successful shows in the states in the rest of the world.

“This is no harder than those and in lots of shows you have people sometimes treated for mild complaints, which is what happened in that game.”

But, as one player, Marlene, pointed out to Variety in February, “It’s not like we signed up for Survivor or Naked and Afraid. The conditions were absolutely inhumane and had nothing to do with the game.”