With nine riveting episodes, Netflix’s acclaimed K-Original survival thriller series Squid Game, directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, has been officially renewed for a second season. The creator has recently teased some details regarding the upcoming season that has piqued the interest of fans.
The dystopian show was set in modern-day Korea where 456 participants were seen participating in extreme survival games that were a perverse and gruesome version of games they played as children. As they let go of their humanity for staggering prize money of 45.6 billion Korean Won, the series served as a harsh critique of capitalism, financial crises, humanity and moral depravity, power struggle and class conflict.
Starring Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Jung Ho Yeon, Wi Ha Jun and more, the series ended on an ambiguous note where the protagonist Gi-hun, even after winning the game, is seen calling the number yet again, probably to get to the bottom of it.
While fans have been wondering what would ensue, the director has had some interesting insights to share.
The 50-year-old Silenced and Miss Granny director told a virtual SAG panel about the plans. He said, “I’m not really in the right place to be discussing season two in an official setting, but if there were to be a season two, in the first season that we saw Gi-hun [Lee-Jung-jae] is a character whose humanity is shown through or exposed in certain situations.”
He clarified by saying that in the first season, Gi-hun’s character and humanity are represented in a “very passive manner”. However, in the second season, according to Hwang, “what he has learned from the games and his experience in the first season, they will all be put to use in a more active manner.”
He also drew parallels between Gi-hun and the Front Man with that of the Jedi Knights in Star Wars, some of whom began with good intentions but slowly got lured in by the evil forces, turning to the Dark Side of the Force.
Hwang spoke about the Front Man, played by Lee Byung-hun, who was a winner of one such game but turned to the dark side to become the one helming such games under the orders of the wealthy, much like Darth Vader. Hwang explained, “Some end up Jedi and some become Darth Vader, right? I think that maybe Gi-hun will go through a certain critical point where he is put through a test as well.”
He also joked about how he would be the “most scary Front Man” if he had been one. Park Hae-soo, the man behind the much-detested Cho Sang-woo, expressed his delight at the widespread reception of such a “uniquely Korean story”.
Baffled, the 40-year-old actor said, “The fact that something we prepared for a long time and showcased to the world in the Korean language and filled with Korean culture, the fact that this was loved by so many around the world and so many people related to it, that was something I’m really proud of.”
Squid Game has also received plenty of Golden Globes nominations and has catapulted Netflix viewership ratings to unfathomable heights, becoming one of the streamer’s most popular shows to date.
Watch Squid Game on Netflix now.
