Netflix quietly cancels Squid Game spinoff from David Fincher

While Squid Game might continue to live on via Squid Game: The Challenge, it seems the franchise will not be expanding in-world, with a high-profile spinoff officially being shelved by Netflix.

According to The Playlist, Netflix has chosen to not move forward with the English-language spinoff of the iconic Korean series, which had been in development since 2024 with David Fincher attached to direct. The groundwork for the show had been laid in the Squid Game series finale via a surprise cameo from Cate Blanchett as an American recruiter seen wearing a suit as she played ddakji with a stranger in an alley.

Netflix had seemed very interested in the project and even brought in Dennis Kelly to write the series. Unfortunately, while the streamer was invested early in the project and eager to expand the franchise that had become a global phenomenon, the project never managed to take flight during the development process. Now years removed from when the project was first envisioned, The Playlist reports that Netflix’s priorities have since shifted and the project was no longer one it felt confident in.

Of course, it did not help that Fincher has moved on to other projects, suggesting his own investment in the stalling project also dwindled as time passed.

Interestingly, while Netflix is not looking to proceed with the American spinoff, there is still a lot of interest in the Squid Game franchise. Reports suggest that instead of a U.S.-based spinoff, there are discussions about other offshoots, which would be “tailored to individual international markets.” While there is an interest in expanding the franchise, there are reportedly no active plans for the regional spinoffs at the moment.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see what the future holds for the Squid Game franchise. Given the success of the original show and the ongoing success of its reality TV competition spinoff, we can’t imagine Netflix will want to abandon the franchise. What seems more likely is that they’ll take more time to find the right project, rather than racing into a spinoff that might not work out in the end.

Still, it would have been interesting to see what Fincher’s American Squid Game spinoff could have looked like and how the director would have interpreted the world for his series. There is also no denying that audiences would have shown up to watch the series out of curiosity to see how it would connect to the original series but also differentiate itself with its own commentary and storytelling.

That said, we do think abandoning the American spinoff was the right call. When news broke that there were discussions about a spinoff, it felt more like a cash grab than anything else. After all, the show set out to tell a powerful story, and it achieved that over the course of its three-season run.

Like all hit shows, we're sure some new iteration of Squid Game will eventually make its way to Netflix, but we're glad the streamer decided not to push ahead with a project it didn't feel strongly about.

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