Squid Game America: Everything to know about David Fincher’s upcoming spinoff

What happens when David Fincher, the mastermind behind Fight Club and Seven, steps into the death games arena? Squid Game America is about to find out. With its razor-sharp critique of capitalism and survival at any cost, the original South Korean hit turned playground games into psychological warfare. Now, the stakes are moving West. Can Fincher twist the knife even deeper, or will the game lose its edge when the rules are rewritten?

The original Squid Game exposed a system that thrives on desperation and devours the powerless. It was a spectacle about survival. A tragedy about the cost of following someone else’s rules, Fincher’s track record suggests his version won’t just be a carbon copy of the original. It may dive deeper into the characters' psychological torment, making the games feel less like entertainment and more like an autopsy of the American dream.

Everything we know so far about Squid Game: America

Netflix hasn’t revealed (or confirmed) many details about Squid Game: America, but here’s what we know and what’s still speculation:

Director: David Fincher’s involvement hasn’t been confirmed, but reports suggest he may direct or executive produce.

Release date: Rumors say production could start in late 2025, with a release in 2026.

Cast and characters: No casting news yet. It’s unclear if the spin-off will have new characters or connect to the original story.

Writers and script: Dennis Kelly (Utopia) is reportedly working on the script, bringing his experience with dystopian narratives into the fold.

Episodes and format: Netflix has not confirmed the format, but it’s likely to follow the original with 8-10 episodes.

Themes and tone: Early speculation suggests the American version could focus on uniquely local struggles like student debt, medical bankruptcies, and corporate greed while retaining the original’s survival-driven structure.

Although Netflix hasn’t made an official announcement yet, the buzz around Fincher’s involvement has already raised expectations. And there are certainly good reasons for such hype.

A fight to survive: Fincher’s signature moves

Fincher has always been obsessed with control and chaos. Fight Club created a secret society where men reclaimed power by surrendering to violence. Squid Game transformed hopelessness about debt into a real-life bloodsport. In both works, the flaws in contemporary society are highlighted by the prevalence of unspoken rules and malfunctioning mechanisms.

That is until we see how Fincher's take on the game changes things. He prefers to play mind games over bloody ones because of his keen sense of psychological tension and deliberate pace. However, that Seven scene has scarred some viewers' minds until now.

Imagine traps that feel less like The Hunger Games and more like the Zodiac, with paranoia running higher than the body count.

Fincher doesn’t shy away from showing what people are willing to do when no one’s watching. In Gone Girl, lies were just as sharp as knives; in Zodiac, the terror wasn’t in what you saw but in what you couldn’t prove.

Squid Game: America has the perfect setup for Fincher’s slow-burn style, with games designed to unnerve, rules that blur the line between reality and performance, and characters unraveling long before the final round.

New players, same broken system

If Squid Game reflected South Korea’s class struggles, Squid Game: America has plenty of material to work with. From student debt and healthcare nightmares to corporate greed, the American spin-off has no shortage of real-world horrors. Will Fincher stick to the original’s bleak commentary, or will the shiny new version blur the message with Hollywood gloss?

Fincher’s America isn’t just broken. It's seductive. In his world, power isn’t just about money; it’s about control. From The Social Network to House of Cards (which he produced), his stories have dissected ambition, corruption, and the illusions we buy into to survive. Squid Game: America could lean into that same dynamic, turning the games into a stage where power isn’t won—it’s sold to the highest bidder.

What's new about Squid Game America?

Remakes and adaptations are common for Netflix. The Spanish series Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) became a global phenomenon. Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area, a South Korean remake, reimagined the show’s themes in the context of Korea's recent unification. Moving the storyline to Asia preserved its essential elements while giving it cultural resonance unique to the region.

But Squid Game: America flips the script. Instead of an adaptation being exported, it’s being imported back into the West, where high-stakes thrillers and social commentaries have long thrived. The reverse flow raises questions: Will the American version honor the raw despair of the original, or will it turn survival into pure spectacle?

The South Korean Squid Game was deeply rooted in cultural anxieties—family expectations, honor, and societal debt traps. An American take has the opportunity to spotlight capitalism’s other pressures, like corporate greed, income inequality, and a healthcare system that feels like a game of Russian roulette. But will it resonate the same way, or will it dilute the critique by trying too hard to entertain?

This shift also mirrors how global audiences have come to embrace international stories, proving that languages and borders are no longer barriers to success. Yet, it raises another question—can Hollywood handle the sharp edges of stories built outside its formula, or will it smooth them down to fit its mold?

A game with no winners

Fincher’s involvement raises expectations. It also invites risks. Can a remake match the raw intensity of the original, or will it feel like an imitation game? Either way, Squid Game: America promises to explore the dark corners of human nature and remind us that survival isn’t always the prize it seems to be.

For Fincher, survival is rarely about strength. It’s about control—how much you have and how far you’ll go to keep it. Whether Squid Game: America delivers on that tension or gets lost in the spectacle, it’s already made one thing clear: the games may be global, but the rules are never fair.