Um, Squid Game: The Challenge players didn’t fall through the bridge, it was stunt doubles?

The bridge game of Squid Game in the original show was one of the most iconic and terrifying ones the players got put through, with the group having to cross a bridge where only one pane of glass on the two to step on is sturdy enough to hold your weight. It seemed only right that the game show spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge would do the bridge challenge in their own, deathless way. But I don’t think anyone was expecting it to be done on Squid Game: The Challenge not with the players, but with stunt doubles falling from the bridge instead

“The fall itself was done by a professional stunt person for the safety of the players,” executive producer John Hay tells EW. “Obviously, that’s paramount for us. There was a large airbag underneath, but that also needs to be done by professionals.”

Via Netflix

He also said that the amount it looks like the players fall is TV trickery, and actually the stunt doubles only fell a safe distance rather than the huge plunge into total darkness it looks like on the show. But that deception is the only thing that was false about the challenge, with meticulous care going into the rest of the bridge challenge to ensure it was a fair game.

“The order of the pattern of the [glass squares], which is a pass and which is a fail, is all predetermined before they’ve stepped on the bridge,” Hay says. “And their reactions and their peers’ reactions to stepping on a fail door and being eliminated are all real. And then, at the last minute, we swapped them out, and a stunt person did the fall.

“The bridge itself was at height,” Hay says. “That was important to us that the sensation of being high on a bridge was there, but obviously, the fall had to be a safe distance. There’s a large airbag underneath, that was all tested and checked. It was incredibly important to us that the gameplay was totally authentic. But we have, as Stephen says, made it look like they fall a little bit further than they do.”

I dunno, I get it makes it safer – but for me using stunt doubles just takes the emotional oomph out of watching the players from Squid Game: The Challenge fall through the bridge. Was there no way they could do it safely?!

Squid Game: The Challenge is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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