‘Squid Game’ creator says he made second season for the money

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of Netflix hit Squid Game, has admitted that the reason he made a second season is “money”.

• READ MORE: ‘Squid Game’ review: child’s play turns deadly in a cutting critique of late-stage capitalism

The second run of episodes of the satirical Korean survival show is set to land on the streaming service on December 26 and will follow Gi-hun, the winner from season one, as he becomes “determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport”.

The trailer for the highly anticipated second season arrived in October, and returns viewers to the competition in which contestants play a series of children’s games, hoping to win a life changing cash prize. However, those who fail to complete the tasks are killed.

In a new interview with the BBC, Hwang is asked what drove him back to the show, after previously declaring he would never return. “Money,” he answered.

“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he added. “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too. And I didn’t fully finish the story.”

The writer-director also discussed how he lost “eight or nine” teeth from stress during the shooting of the first season, but admitted, “the stress I feel now is much greater,” given the show’s huge success.

In August, Netflix confirmed that the show had been renewed for its third and final season, which is expected to be released in 2025.

In other news, David Fincher is reportedly set to develop an English-language version of Squid Game for Netflix.

The Fight Club and Gone Girl director has been rumoured to be involved with the dystopian show for several months, with Deadline recently reporting that he is “likely” to be committing his time to its English language incarnation in 2025.

This would represent the first scripted spin-off from Hwang Dong-hyuk’s South Korean original, which debuted on the streaming service in 2021. The show instantly became a pop culture juggernaut and even spawned a reality competition in 2023.

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