Netflix has reportedly abandoned David Fincher’s long-developing English-language ‘Squid Game’ spinoff, working-titled ‘Heckler’
The project had ‘Utopia’ creator Dennis Kelly attached to write and was set to film in the United Kingdom despite its American framing
Executive changes, Fincher’s move to other projects, and a pivot toward country-specific spinoffs are cited as reasons
David Fincher‘s long-gestating American Squid Game spinoff, developed under the working title Heckler, is supposedly no longer moving forward at Netflix. Per reporting from The Playlist, the streamer has stepped away from the English-language expansion after years of development, closing the book on what had been one of the franchise’s most anticipated offshoots.
For all the anticipation around it, Heckler carried a few details that ran counter to expectations. Though framed as an American continuation of the deadly games, the series was actually set to film in the United Kingdom rather than the US. Writing duties had gone to Dennis Kelly, the creator of Utopia, who had a prior connection to Fincher through an HBO adaptation of Utopia that was ultimately abandoned before it could get off the ground.
The collapse reads as a gradual loss of momentum rather than a single clean break. Sources close to Fincher point to a run of factors that drained the project’s forward motion, including multiple executive changes at Netflix and the director shifting his focus to other work, among them The Adventures of Cliff Booth.
Underpinning those setbacks is a change in how Netflix wants to grow the property. Rather than build the next chapter around a single American series, the streamer is now oriented toward developing country-specific Squid Game projects tailored to individual international markets. That strategic turn effectively reframes Heckler as a casualty of a broader plan for the universe, not just a stalled production.
Much of the spinoff’s early buzz traced back to one moment in the finale. Cate Blanchett surfaced in the closing scene as an American recruiter in a Los Angeles setting, and viewers read the cameo as a tease for Fincher’s project. Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk consistently rejected any link between the two. According to The Playlist, there is no indication Blanchett was ever attached to Heckler, even though she had previously voiced strong openness to returning to the franchise.
