A deacon from north Wales has confirmed he is one of the players in the next series of Netflix’s Squid Games: The Challenge.

The Revd Glyn Wise who is based in the Aled Mission Area was ordained by the Bishop of St Asaph as a deacon in June 2025 having filmed the show last winter.

SQUID GAMES THE CHALLENGE

He is player number 036 in Season 2 of the series which starts on NetflixUK on Tuesday 4 November.

Glyn is the second priest in the diocese to take part in the programme. In 2023, the Priest in Charge of St Collen’s Church in Llangollen, the Revd Lee Taylor, was invited to participate. He was contestant number 123 and was eliminated in the early stages of the competition.

Glyn, who has posted about his involvement in the series on his Instagram feed, says he agreed to take part in the show after studying a course on Christianity and modern culture during his training to be a priest at St Padarns Institute in Cardiff. He writes: “Last year, I did numerous sermons based on the Golden Calf, Exodus 32, which centres on the Israelites’ impatience while Moses was on Mount Sinai. The giant piggy bank of money in Squid Games serves as a modern version of the Golden Calf from the Old Testament. In both narratives, a captivating symbol of wealth becomes an object of worship for a desperate and impatient people, leading to violence, apostasy and profound moral failure. Little did I know, that I would eventually join the games!”

Glyn is continuing his training to be a priest in the Aled Mission Area around Old Colwyn, Betws yn Rhos and Llansannan. In 2006, he took part in the seventh series of the Channel 4 TV programme, Big Brother. He is a fluent Welsh speaker and comes from Blaenau Ffestiniog originally.

The Aled Mission Area is one of the 20 Mission Areas making up the Diocese of St Asaph, one of the six dioceses in the Church in Wales, an autonomous province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 launches on NetflixUK on Tuesday 4 November.