Netflix prepares The New Stanford Prison Experiment, immersive game to Squid Game
From October 21, 2026, Netflix will launch the unscripted series The New Stanford Prison Experiment with 30 volunteers in prison.
After the global phenomenon Squid Game: The Challenge, Netflix wants to push the filmed social-experiment concept further. The platform announced, via Variety, an unscripted series titled The New Stanford Prison Experiment, scheduled for October 21, 2026. The first season will consist of six episodes of about 45 minutes each.
Thirty volunteer participants will be sent to a real prison and randomly assigned as guards or inmates. Inspired by Philip Zimbardo's 1971 study, the series aims to observe how imposed roles influence behavior and ethical choices of the participants.
The project is produced, among others, by Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth, known for Homicide. Lipsitz said the Stanford experiment has always fascinated her and that reinventing it today raises the fundamental question of power over moral decisions, describing the work as "intense, exhilarating and undeniably thrilling".