Floor Is Lava Creators Spill the Secrets of the Newest Netflix Hit

Floor Is Lava is a simple concept most of us have played for decades. Alas, Netflix finally turned it into a game show and it’s been one of the most popular pieces of original programming on the streamer of the past few months. The creators behind the show — Irad Eyal and Megan McGrath — recently sat down with THR for a “tell-all” with all sorts of fun tidbits from behind the scenes the hit Netflix series.

Though the duo went on to reveal a lot about the show, they refused to answer just how the production team came up with fire-red lava that serves as the basis of the show. According to McGrath, they’re keeping everything under lock and key just because it took them so long to come up with the concoction.

“We tasked Hollywood’s biggest chemists and slime/goopy substance-makers to come up with our lava,” McGrath said. “We did a ton of research about what lava looks like and how it moves and how it glows and we tried to really create that in ours. We spent months testing different lavas and different formulas.”

Eyal added, “The reason we’re being so secretive about it is because it really did take a long time to nail this down. You want the lava to glow. ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ the chemists said, ‘we could just add in some glowing chemicals.’ Well, it turns out those things are carcinogenic. So you can’t have that in there. So it took a long time to figure out exactly how do you make this thing bubble, flow, be slippery, be viscous in the right way, and also be safe that people can be submerged in it for minutes at a time, hours at a time, whatever it is, and come out safely.

If you’re hoping to see other childhood games adapted for a new generation, you might be in luck — the duo is already working on on a couple of new properties to pitch to potential networks and streaming partners. “We are working on a couple but we’re going to keep it under wraps. One of the great things with Floor Is Lava is seeing people comment, ‘How has this not been done before? How has no one thought of this before?’ And when you come across an idea like that, and you realize,’oh, it hasn’t been done before,’ you run with it as fast as you can because you know that it’s going to connect with a lot of people,” Eyal said.

Floor Is Lava is now streaming on Netflix.