Netflix is leaning hard into the ‘Squid Game’ universe. Its creator is ‘sick’ of working on it.
Lee Jung-jae rebels against the games in “Squid Game” season two.
After “Squid Game” became a global sensation in 2021, Netflix invested big-time in the series and the franchise — and after working on the show’s second and third seasons, its creator is ready for a break.
“I’m so exhausted. I’m so tired. In a way, I have to say, I’m so sick of ‘Squid Game.’ I’m so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I’m not thinking about my next project right now,” creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk told Variety.
“I’m just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix,” he continued.
“Squid Game,” a Korean-language series, captured global audiences three years ago with bright, childlike aesthetics juxtaposed against a gripping, deadly story.
Unable to provide for himself or his mother’s medical care, divorced dad Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) signs on to a game where people in heavy amounts of debt play children’s games in pursuit of a 45.6 billion won cash prize. To do so, they wager their lives: failing a game means instant death. Gi-hun survives, but the other 455 players don’t — and at the end of season one, he sets off to shut down the games himself.
The series was a massive hit for Netflix to the tune of 330 million viewers and 2.8 billion hours viewed to date, per Variety. Bloomberg reported a month after the season one premiere in October 2021 that Netflix estimated the series would make the company $900 million. The first season was critically successful as well: the show was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won six, including outstanding directing for a drama series for Hwang and outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Lee.
In the three-year gap between seasons one and two, the streaming platform has doubled down on the property, spinning the “Squid Game” franchise into the reality series “Squid Game: The Challenge” and in-person experiences where people can play through a non-deadly version of the games with their friends. This year, Netflix launched its own video game, “Squid Game: Unleashed” and made it available to non-subscribers.
Hwang has been kept in the loop on these “Squid Game” spin-off projects, and consults on potential on-screen continuations of the franchise, Variety reported. However, he told the publication that he was more concerned with finishing the main series.
Hwang told Entertainment Weekly he’d intended seasons two and three to be one story, but had to split them in two due to what would have been a lengthy episode count. The second and third seasons were filmed back-to-back, and season three is expected in 2025.
It’s a lot of work for a creator who didn’t anticipate he’d be doing a second season at all.
“I had no intention of doing a second season, because the overall process of writing, producing and directing the series was so challenging,” Hwang said.
