Creator of 'Squid Game' Excited for a Second Season: 'You Leave Us No Choice'
The cast and creators of Netflix's global smash-hit Squid Game appear to be gearing up for a second season of the show.
While Netflix has not officially green-lit the project, the showrunner of Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk, all but confirmed a second season himself. During a red carpet celebration for the show Monday in Los Angeles, Dong-hyuk told the Associated Press that "[the fans of the show] leave us no choice."
"There's been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season," Dong-hyuk continued. "It's in my head right now. I'm in the planning process currently. But I do think it's too early to say when and how that's going to happen. So I will promise you this, Gi-hun will be back and he'll do something for the world."
Starring Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, along with a larger ensemble cast, the South Korean-made Squid Game focuses on a contest in which 456 indebted players partake in a series of deadly children's games. One by one, the players are eliminated, and the last one standing receives $45.6 billion South Korean won ($38 million USD).
Throughout the series' nine-episode first season, the main character, Seong Gi-hun (Jung-jae), is forced to deal with a number of personal issues affecting his own life, as well as the others playing the game.
Released on September 17, the series became an instant global hit, and within months became Netflix's most-watched television show of all time, beating out the previous champion, period romance Bridgerton.
While the show was filmed in Korean, English-dubbed and English-subtitled versions are available, allowing viewers unfamiliar with the show's native language to enjoy it, as well.
Jung-jae, a well-known actor in South Korea for more than 25 years, explained to the Associated Press that he now gets recognized in other countries for the first time.
"That's amazing, right? People just go around and say hello," Jung-jae said. "So I really don't know how to respond to all the love. It's so great to be able to meet the fans who have loved and watched the show so much."
Additionally, Ho-yeon described how an immigration officer at Los Angeles International Airport became the first person to ask for her autograph.
A number of Squid Game's other stars also spoke out about the intense limelight that has been put on them with the success of the show, and also conveyed their desire to participate in a Hollywood production in the near future, joking for Los Angeles-based agents to call them.
The South Korean film and entertainment industry has seen a massive boom in the past few years, and has risen to become competitive among other markets such as the Chinese film industry and India's Bollywood.
The industry generated a peak revenue of $2.51 trillion won ($2.1 billion USD) in 2019, according to Statista, although profits came crashing down in 2020 due to COVID-19. Squid Game is perhaps one key indicator in the re-emergence of the South Korean market.
Newsweek has reached out to Netflix for comment.
