TV
‘Squid Game: The VIP Challenge’ Celebrity Competitors Revealed
Celebrities are entering the world of “Squid Game” with “Squid Game: The VIP Challenge.”
They’ll put their wits, strategies, and skill sets to the ultimate test in Netflix’s cutthroat reality competition series.
What celebrities are on “Squid Game: The VIP Challenge?”
“Squid Game: The VIP Challenge” will feature eight celebrity competitors:
- Dylan Efron (“The Traitors”)
- Hannah Godwin (“The Bachelor”)
- Kim Zolciak (“The Real Housewives of Atlanta”)
- Kristy Sarah (content creator)
- Mel B (Spice Girls)
- Ryan Serhant (“Owning Manhattan”)
- Tristan Thompson (NBA champion)
- Viper (“Squid Game: The Challenge” fan vote winner)
Viper told Netflix that he plans to cause “total chaos” in the game when he returns. “I did learn that every single decision should be considered in great detail,” he said. “I will surely use a microscope with every choice I make.”
Following the breakout success of “Squid Game,” Netflix turned the dystopian survival thriller concept into a reality series in which 456 players compete for a record-breaking $4.56 million. It premiered in 2023, followed by a second season last year. A third season is in the works.
“Squid Game: The VIP Challenge” is coming soon.
Blade Runner is headed to the small screen in Prime Video’s upcoming Blade Runner 2099, set 50 years after Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, in a world where replicants have emerged on top after an uprising.
Humans are no longer in power.
At the forefront of the new series are stars Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo), and EW has shared the first images of their characters.
Yeoh stars as a replicant Blade Runner named Olwen, facing the final days of her life. It’s a twist on the Roy Batty story from the first film; here, that story will be told from the replicant’s perspective.
Opposite her is Schafer as Olwen’s partner, Cora, a human fugitive pretending to be a replicant. Olwen and Cora will be working together to investigate missing rogue replicants.
Blade Runner 2099 comes from Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free, and Amazon Studios. Silka Luisa (“Shining Girls”) is writing, showrunning, and executive producing.
Jonathan van Tulleken (“Shōgun”) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes.
Luisa tells EW that Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi noir acts as the series’ North Star, but it’ll forge its own identity: “We leaned into sunshine noir. You’re still very much in the Blade Runner world, but the show is about a birth. It’s about a birth of a city. It’s about a birth of a replicant era. These characters are discovering who they really are. And so the climate is hot, it’s sticky, it’s sunny. We’re on the coast a lot. We’re in Santa Monica a lot. So it’s like you’re seeing Ridley’s texture, but you’re seeing it in the sunshine noir filter.”
The showrunner adds, “The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant?“
Dimitri Abold (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Lewis Gribben (Somewhere Boy), Katelyn Rose Downey (The Nun II), and Daniel Rigby (Renegade Nell) also star in the upcoming series. Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow), Amy Lennox (Only Child), Sheila Atim (The Woman King), and Matthew Needham (House of the Dragon) join as recurring guest stars.
Blade Runner 2099 is expected to premiere later this year, so stay tuned.
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
Credit: Clay Enos/Prime Video
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