The Squid Game Season 2 Scene That Made The Actors Sick

Contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 2, Episodes 4, 5, and 7

Should "Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-hyuk be charged with attempted murder? Okay, that might be a bit extreme — but he should definitely feel a little guilty about what he put the cast through for one scene in particular.

Just like Season 1, there's no shortage of demented mayhem for Squid Game players to navigate, including the "Six-Legged Pentathlon," a game that ended up being almost too difficult for the cast to film. For this game, players are first given 10 minutes to divide into a group of five. Then, their legs are tied together. After that, each team moves 10 meters on a circular track before one specific player plays a mini-game. There are five games in total, and the players are given only five minutes to successfully complete them all. Those who don't finish them all in time ... you know what happens.

So why was this so hard for the cast to film? Lee Jung-jae — who plays series lead Seong Gi-hun — told The Wrap that an unforeseen consequence of all the running — not to mention all the gravel they used to fill the play area with — began to cause actual health concerns on set. He recalled, "Every time one group did a run around, [the set] was completely filled with dust, and it was hard to breathe." Showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk confirmed this, adding, "Everyone got really sick. As soon as I said 'Cut,' everyone started coughing, including me. It took more than two weeks to film the scene."

So was it worth it to spend so much time filming this one particular game and basically achieve the ultimate irony by almost killing the "Squid Game" actors in real life? Maybe — at least when it comes to the message Hwang Dong-hyuk hopes to convey with it. He explained, "That was the only game where participants root for each other. I thought, if we can increase the opportunities for people to support and root for each other, society will get better."

While it remains to be seen if the heavy-handed anti-capitalist undertones of the show have enough weight to actually enact meaningful change in the real world, you can't argue that "Squid Game" continues to kill on Netflix, with the show's first four days on the streamer earning a record-breaking 68 million views. And it's far from over — Season 3 has already been filmed and will drop sometime in 2025. We'll just have to do our best to forget about the cliffhanger we were left with at the end of Episode 7 until then.