Netflix is leaning hard into the 'Squid Game' universe. Its creator said he's 'sick' of working on it.
No Ju-han / Netflix
- "Squid Game" was a massive hit for Netflix, which greenlight a second and third season.
- Its creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, said he's "exhausted" after working on the show and wants a break.
- Netflix has spun off "Squid Game" into a reality series, in-person experiences, and a video game.
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," Hwang Dong-hyuk, the mastermind behind the show, told Variety. "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."
He added: "I'm just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix."
"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, Seong Gi-hun, a divorced dad, 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: Losing a game means instant death. Seong, played by Lee Jung-jae, 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, according to Variety. Bloomberg reported a month after season one's 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 capitalized on the property, spinning off the "Squid Game" franchise into the reality series "Squid Game: The Challenge" and in-person experiences where people can play through nondeadly versions of the games with their friends. This year, Netflix launched the video game "Squid Game: Unleashed" and made it available to nonsubscribers.
Hwang has been kept in the loop on these "Squid Game" projects and consults on prospective on-screen continuations of the franchise, Variety said. However, he told the publication that he was more concerned with finishing the main series.
He told Entertainment Weekly he'd intended seasons two and three to be one story but had to split them in two because of 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," Hwang said, "because the overall process of writing, producing, and directing the series was so challenging."