2023 WSOP Main Event runner-up Steven Jones Jr. is a contestant on the second season of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge.
More specifically, he’s contestant 183 out of 456 players on the new game show — all vying for the $4.56 million first prize through a series of eight ‘survival’ games.
The first four episodes have been released on Netflix today, with the rest dropping over a three-week period — another four on November 11 and the finale on November 19.
Jones – who won $6.5 million for his second-place finish at the 2023 WSOP — announced the news on Instagram, posting: “Your boy has entered the games!”
Netflix has also released the first 13 minutes of the show as a teaser — you can watch that at the top of the article.
However, there’s also an official trailer, which features Jones, that you can watch below. We haven’t watched any of the episodes yet (no spoilers here!) but here’s one observation: players who appear in the trailer often turn out to be significant contestants.
Squid Game: The Challenge controversy
The original Squid Game was a huge hit for Netflix, with the Korean drama skewering capitalism and showing the lengths desperate people will go to for money.
It became the latest in a long line of dramatized dystopian game shows, joining films like The Running Man and Battle Royale.
The difference is that Netflix decided to turn this one into an actual game show, leading to a huge amount of criticism.
The controversy began even before the first season aired, with contestants making a number of grievances, including one from the opening ‘Red Light, Green Light’ challenge that was filmed in freezing conditions, through long hours of filming.
One contestant claimed: “Even if hypothermia kicked in then people were willing to stay for as long as possible because a lot of money was on the line. Too many were determined not to move so they stood there for far too long. There were people arriving thinking they were going to be millionaires but they left in tears.”
Casting already announced for Season 3
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, ahead of the new season airing, Studio Lambert’s executive producers pushed back against the criticism.
Tim Harcourt said, “I take issue over the notion that Squid Game has just one point. One of the important strands was the capitalist critique. But it’s also a critique of how we are ingrained from childhood to be ultra competitive via these childhood games. It’s also about how people behave under pressure — and that’s what makes reality shows interesting... It was also about camaraderie.”
He also said that this wasn’t about desperate people in need of money playing for a big prize — although if you’ve seen the first series, you’ll know how important that prize money was to some of them.
Stephen Lambert claimed the challenges were no harder than those featured in many other ‘survival’ game shows and said, “We’re giving away the largest prize in TV competition history. It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to win $4.56 million.”
Despite the criticism, Season 1 of The Challenge won a BAFTA and was nominated for three Emmys. And Netflix is already casting for Season 3 — a sign of its confidence in the show’s ongoing success.
