Creator of Squid Game Hwang Dong-hyuk says he became ‘numb’ to the violence of the Netflix series
Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of Netflix’s Korean superhit Squid Game, has revealed he has become numb to the violence in his own show and doesn’t actually like watching its more gruesome scenes.
Squid Game became a global phenomenon upon its release in 2021, introducing many audiences to South Korean content for the first time. Since its release, Netflix has continued to invest in Korean shows and movies, and there are now an enormous 120 Korean Netflix Originals.
The show was such a stratospheric hit that a game show spinoff—Squid Game: The Challenge—arrived in 2023. A second season of the core show is scheduled to be Netflix’s big release on Boxing Day. There have also been rumours of David Fincher (Mindhunter, The Killer) developing an English-language remake for the streaming giant.
Dong-hyuk, who made history by becoming the first Asian creator to win ‘Best Director’ at the Emmy Awards, was interviewed by Sky News in the leadup to the second season’s debut, and he had some fascinating things to say about his relationship to the violence of his own show.
“For some of the scenes,” Hwang admitted, “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 visualise 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.”
However, this isn’t to say Hwang thinks his series is gratuitous in its violence or depicts violent acts without any deeper meaning. He argued, “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.”
The creator also believes Squid Game is inherently less upsettingly violent than the abundance of true crime series and documentaries that find such large audiences on Netflix. He said, “I created this series wanting to symbolise 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.”
When Hwang was asked what he would like the legacy of Squid Game to be, as well as the legacy of his work in general, he mused, “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.”