Executive producers John Hay and Tim Harcourt answer EW’s burning questions about episodes 5-8 of season 2.

Squid Game: The Challenge producers reveal how far players actually fell during Slides and Ladders

Executive producers John Hay and Tim Harcourt answer EW's burning questions about episodes 5-8 of season 2.

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in *TV Guide Magazine*, E! News/E! Online, *The Hollywood Reporter*, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, *The Daily Northwestern*, and more.

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November 11, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET

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Slides and Ladders on 'Squid Game: The Challenge' season 2. Credit:

Pete Dadds/Netflix

**This article contains spoilers for episodes 5-8 of *Squid Game: The Challenge *season 2.**

*Squid Game: The Challenge *producers want to make it very clear that no one actually fell to their death in season 2's epic Slides and Ladders game.

Just like in last season's massive Glass Bridge showdown, the new Chutes and Ladders-inspired game played in the second batch of episodes showed eliminated players seemingly falling a great distance without any safe landing. But that's all thanks to some TV magic, as contestants who chose the wrong slides didn't actually fall at all.

Below, *Squid Game: The Challenge* executive producers John Hay and Tim Harcourt tell ** what really happened when players got eliminated in Slides and Ladders. Plus, they answer more burning questions about episodes 5-8 (now streaming on Netflix) ahead of the season 2 finale.

Circle of Trust in 'Squid Game: The Challenge' season 2.

Pete Dadds/Netflix

**: Is Slides and Ladders the biggest game you designed for season 2?**

**TIM HARCOURT: **Absolutely. We ourselves were blown away. The game team had come up with this game and mapped it out, and we were like, "Yeah, that'll be quite big." I'll never forget when I first walked in, three or four weeks before we actually played it for real, to see the set. And it is absolutely gigantic. It must have been 30 feet high.

**JOHN HAY:** It was huge. Also, you came in through quite a small entrance, and suddenly this thing's there like a building, it was like stories high. My favorite thing that day was trying out the slides for the first time. That was a slightly nerve-racking experience, but I suppose it's a high bar, effectively in the same sort of position in the run as the Glass Bridge, which was such an incredible set. So we felt it was really on us to come up with something that had the same sense of the spectacular and that same sense of peril, feet wobbling as they stepped forward, and I feel it really delivered that.

**Similarly to Glass Bridge, it looked like eliminated contestants dropped from slides 100 feet to their death. We talked last season about how that wasn't actually the case with Glass Bridge, so how far did the contestants actually slide down? And where did they come out of those slides?****

**HARCOURT: **The slides were only about 20 feet long with crash mats behind them. They'd actually come out at the back of the set. We had higher ones to film some drops with, as well, so we could have that effect of people falling quite far a distance. But it was all done very safely, and thanks to the power of some great CGI, the drop from the edge of the slide is made to feel a lot higher than it is.

**HAY: **We can exclusively reveal that nobody fell to their death. It felt like, after the Glass Bridge, there was the license to imagine that we were in a world where people fell further or were at a greater height and all the rest of it. It felt like a natural evolution in this new challenge.

**Did any of the eliminated contestants scream or make noise as they went down the slides? Did anyone get creative with that?**

**HAY: **I don't know how creative it was, but I did the slide, and I screamed out.

**HARCOURT: **I didn't recall hearing anyone, actually. I think people are so disappointed when they realize they're not coming back onto the board that, yeah, it was a bit more muted.

**HAY: **It's a big moment to be that close to that sum of money and then to not get it. It means something to people.

Slides and Ladders on 'Squid Game: The Challenge' season 2.

Courtesy of Netflix

**That's why I was so shocked that people kept volunteering to go down unknown slides first.**

**HARCOURT:** That's the other lovely moment. *Squid Game* is an elimination game, but there are these moments of deep altruism and kindness even amongst it. It's a proper test of human nature.

**Circle of Trust returned, but did you make any changes to the game behind-the-scenes when you brought it back this season?**

**HARCOURT: **No, we didn't tweak anything. We had slightly less intuitive players, but it's still so dramatic seeing people being falsely accused for whatever reason. We absolutely love that game. We've all played it — John and I have both played it, and it is actually very hard. I think a lot of people imagine, "I'm really good at reading body language; I can tell that someone's lying." But actually, it is tricky. That actually makes the feat, I think, of Phil and Mai in season 1, where they successfully were able to navigate that game, look even more impressive in retrospect.

**Did players get to practice with their shuffleboard pucks before competing in that final dorm showdown?**

**HARCOURT: **They weren't even allowed one slide. It's incredible, they played it for the first time, no practice. And I think they actually all did very well, considering. That's a great tense moment. It's just a small game with really high stakes.

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**Last season, we saw only the top 3 get to the tuxedo dinner. Why did you change that to the top 5 this season? **

**HARCOURT: **There's intentionality in that. Obviously, you want that final meal to be impactful, but also, there's a surprise in the final episode that will have everybody make much more sense of those numbers.

**HAY: **It's the same desire to return to the tropes that people love, but to find a way of doing them slightly differently, both for you and the players.

**The trailer for the finale at the end of the episode revealed Red Light, Green Light is coming in the last episode. How will that work with only a few players?**

**HAY:** I don't think we're allowed to say. I think we might tease that one as a tease, but it does come back, but it's different. It is an incredible final episode. There's a moment that just completely floored me and surprised me and was unbelievably moving.

**Are we not getting the Dalgona cookie challenge this season?**

**HAY: **No Dalgona this season, but it's a game we love. We'll hopefully be making many more seasons of this, and we'd love to see it come back at some stage.

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The* Squid Game: The Challenge *season 2 finale streams Tuesday, Nov. 18 on Netflix.

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Source: “EW TV”