The writer and director of Squid Game says he’s become numb to the hyperviolence depicted in the show and doesn’t enjoy watching its graphic scenes.
The first season of Hwang Dong-hyuk’s dystopian South Korean drama was a lockdown phenomenon, becoming the most-watched series launch in Netflix history.
The 53-year-old filmmaker went on to make Emmy history as the first Asian to win outstanding directing for a drama series.
Hwang Dong-hyuk on the set of Squid Game season one. Pic: Netflix
Now, with the second season just weeks away, Hwang tells Sky News: “For some of the scenes, like where they’re harvesting organs in the first season, I think if I wasn’t the one creating it, I would probably cover my eyes too.
“But as a creator, I have to visualize what I’ve created and written. I guess in a sense I’ve become a little numb to that, but I can say as a person, I’m not the type who can watch those very graphic scenes easily.”
Originally written as a film script in 2008, Squid Game was turned down by multiple South Korean studios, before being picked up by Netflix a decade later as part of its drive to expand foreign programming.
It was a wise call for the streamer, which now has 120 original Korean series and films under its belt.
The drama’s juxtaposition of innocent childhood games with brutal bloodshed and death on a mass scale has proved both effective and controversial in equal measure.
When the first season came out in 2021, some schools warned parents not to let their kids watch it after reports of re-enactments in playgrounds leading to injury and upset.
The first season of Squid Game was a global hit. Pic: Netflix
‘Less violent than true crime’
Hwang himself has previously made clear that Squid Game was not made for children (in the UK, both seasons are rated 15, while in Korea they’re rated 19 and above) and has explicitly advised against children watching it.
Bringing Korean games including Red Light, Green Light, and the titular Squid Game to the attention of the world, it’s likely the next season – which picks up three years after Player 456’s victory – will introduce numerous new ways to cull its contestants.
Hwang says: “The violence depicted in this series is more allegorical, I try to depict society’s violent ways of treating the losers of competition, not it being physical violence, but the way they drive them to the bottom of society, forcing them into poverty…
“Those that are eliminated, so to speak, or those that lose the competition, they are headed for a life in pain, and I tried to express that.”
And he insists the show is less violent than true crime – a genre that exploded in popularity over lockdown too, and another in which Netflix particularly excels.
“I created this series wanting to symbolize that as instant death, because it’s in the form of a game. I almost think it’s less violent than some of the violence depicted in other forms of content, like true crime-based series.”
Season two sees Player 456 re-enter the game. Pic: Netflix
‘I’m better off than before’
With a focus on wealth and social status, the show puts an exact value on human life – 100 million South Korean won (£55.6m) is added to the prize pot following the death of each contestant, with a potential grand prize of 45.6bn South Korean won (£25.4bn) at the climax of the games.
Meanwhile, Squid Game has earned Netflix hundreds of millions of pounds – leading Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos to allude to a future “Squid Game universe”.
Earlier this year, the streamer released a game show adaptation, Squid Game: The Challenge offering the largest single cash prize ever in a television show (a $4.56m/£3.64m jackpot), and there are whispers of an English-language TV series in the works too.
But Hwang brushes off the suggestion the success of the show might have made him as wealthy as the super-rich he satirizes.
“I may be better off than before, but I don’t think it will bring me to that level of influence or wealth,” he says.
While Hwang may not be buying his own jet planes and yachts quite yet, he hopes his takedown of those who misuse their extreme financial or political powers will create a legacy of its own.
As his Squid Game universe continues to expand, Hwang says: “I would love to be remembered as someone who gave food for thought, who created an opportunity for people to have more meaningful conversations about such things”.
Squid Game season two is streaming on Netflix from Boxing Day, with the third and final season out next year.