Season 1 • Episode 27
LatestFive youngsters enter the Hippo Challenge because of their skills, and this is the beginning of a friendship between them, unaware that the Hippo Challenge is designed by a big, powerful Mafia and unpredictable adventures ...
Writing
Kiarash Asadizade's maze-like plotting rewards obsessive attention
Acting
Mostafa Zamani's Navid carries crushing moral weight
Production
Tehran's underground spaces shot with claustrophobic intimacy
Creator
Kiarash Asadizade
Mostafa Zamani
Navid
Sara Bahrami
Raha (Najme)
Hoda Zeinolabedin
Gisu
Pouria Rahimi Sam
Kazem (Kazi)
Banipal Shoomoon
Danial
Pantea Panahiha
Vanushe Azimi
Mehdi Koushki
Kurush
Setareh Pesyani
Nazanin
Elham Korda
Kiyana Moradi (Simin)
Kazem Sayyahi
Mark (Mehran Ark)
Nader Fallah
Taher
Sharare Dolatabadi
Giti
Masume Ghasemipur
Homeyra Owtadi
Majid Aqakarimi
Behnam
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Hippo Challenge mirrors real Iranian economic desperation where educated youth compete for scraps from shadowy power structures. The series became a sleeper hit by speaking in coded metaphors.
Kiarash Asadizade cast theater actors deliberately — Mostafa Zamani and Sara Bahrami had never led TV series before, making their raw chemistry feel authentically uncertain.
IR
