Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk says he lost '8 or 9' teeth while making first season of hit show
Why, then, did he return for the second season?
Hwang Dong-hyuk, left, and Lee Jung-jae arrives at an FYC screening for the second season of "Squid Game" on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
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Making the global hit series Squid Game can be hazardous for the teeth and not too healthy for the pocket either, according to its director Hwang Dong-hyuk.
The South Korean director told BBC that he’d lost “eight or nine” teeth due to the stress of making Season 1, instead of the six initially reported.
One wonders why he’d come back for second helpings. It appears the reason is money. Hwang revealed that he didn’t make as much money from the show's massive success as everyone thought.
“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly, I didn’t make much. 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,” he said.
Season 2 of Squid Game, which is slated for release on Dec 26, started filming last July. It will again star Lee Jung-jae, who will reprise his role as protagonist Gi-hun, This time, he returns to destroy Squid Game three years after winning the first game.
The audience will also see more of Front Man, “his past, his story and his emotions”, actor Lee Byung-hun, who plays the character, told the BBC. “I don’t think this will make viewers warm to him, but it may help them better understand his choices.”
Squid Game’s director is also bringing back the macabre twist of child-like wonder in the set designs, including a grander scale (bigger maze, bigger dormitory, more corridors) and higher tension for its players with the introduction of a voting system.
“People are really taking sides a lot these days,” Hwang told reporters at a press event, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
“In Season 2, we incorporated an election system and the use of ‘O’ and ‘X’ symbols to emphasise the theme of distinguishing between one another. It's a satirical element reflecting the trend of taking sides – one of the key themes in Season 2.”
The players’ decisions will “divide them into groups, creating factions within them”, which in turn, leads to further conflicts and tension, Hwang added.
The pressure of creating the second run may mean aching teeth for the director again. “I haven’t seen my dentist yet, but I’ll probably have to pull out a few more very soon,” he jokingly told the BBC.
A third and final season is set to air in 2025.
