Where is Squid Game: The Challenge filmed? Set location of Netflix reality series and how was it filmed

Squid Game: The Challenge debuted on Netflix this month, featuring 456 contestants competing in a series of mental and physical games inspired by hit South Korean drama Squid Game.

The reality show is a much tamer version of the drama series which saw all but one of the contestants brutally killed off, but recreating the dystopian show’s sets was no mean feat for producers.

Finding the right location to shoot the show, with a cast of around 500, and making replicas of iconic sets proved its own kind of challenge for the series, especially given the high expectations following the success of the original show.

Where was Squid Game: The Challenge filmed?

The biggest challenge for producers of the show was finding a suitable location that could accommodate almost 500 contestants and the elaborate sets required for the series. The first challenge, Red Light, Green Light, was shot at Cardington Studios in Bedford - the 146,000 square foot space was large enough to host the game which required all of the contestants to be on set at once, along with the game marshals and the giant killer doll.

Cardington Studios was previously an RAF airfield and housed zeppelins and planes up to the 1930s, and was later used as a storage station. Other productions filmed there include the Dark Knight trilogy, the 2022 The Batman movie, several Star Wars films, and Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The rest of the series was filmed at Wharf Studios in London over two weeks in January 2023. Production took place across six different sound stages at the studio in Barking. All of the studios are located on a 10-acre site allowing producers to take over much of the space and film most of the show at one location. 

The sequences set in the dormitory were also filmed at Wharf Studios with the large bunk bed structure a faithful recreation of the one used in the original South Korean series.

What sets were used in Squid Game: The Challenge?

Many of the settings featured in the original Squid Game series are recreated in The Challenge. As well as the Red Light, Green Light set, the show features the big sandpit used for the honeycomb cut-out game, the sinister city street location from the marbles game, and a less lethal recreation of the glass stepping stones set which fortunately doesn’t see unsuccessful contestants plummet to their death.

Squid Game: The Challenge also features new games which did not feature in the series. Warship, which was inspired by the board game Battleship featured a large version of the board which played stepped into, and another challenge in which one contestant had to convince another to answer a telephone, was filmed on a stark white set. More interesting sets feature in the episodes which were released on Netflix today (November 29), and the final episode which comes out on December 6.