Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that "money" was his main motivation for making the the second and third seasons of the hit Netflix series. The South Korean survival thriller was one of the most surprising successes for Netflix after becoming the most-watched season of a non-English TV series in the streamer's history, along with staying in the Global Top 10 for nine consecutive weeks.
Despite the show's massive global success, Dong-hyuk didn't get paid as much as what many fans had suspected. The creator has been transparent about the struggles it took to get the first season to screens, so when the BBC asked him why he was returning to make more seasons, he said that it was "money" that motivated him. “Money…Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much," he revealed. “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too."
According to a June 2023 report by the LA Times, Dong-hyuk was merely paid a flat fee when he sold Squid Game to Netlfix, meaning that he wasn't been able to gain any residuals from the high profits massive success of Season 1. The contract that he signed also forfeited his rights to all intellectual property related to the series he created. However, the creator won an Emmy for the first season.
When Squid Game became a global hit, Dong-hyuk talked about his original payment from Netflix while speaking to The Guardian in an October 2021 interview: “I’m not that rich. But I do have enough. I have enough to put food on the table. And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.”
The writer-director has also creative reasons for returning to Squid Game, noting that there's still more story to tell. “And I didn’t fully finish the story,” Dong-hyuk told BBC. With a new story and new cast of characters to develop, Dong-hyuk also said that "the stress I feel now is much greater." Making Season 2 also brought up a new question for the creator, “When making this series, I constantly asked myself ‘do we humans have what it takes to steer the world off this downhill path?’. Honestly, I don’t know,”
Who are the cast of Squid Game Season 2?
Joining Lee Jung-jae, other returning cast members for the second season of Squid Game include Gong Yoo, Wi Ha-joon, and Lee Byung-hun. The newcomers joining them are Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Won Ji-an, and Jo Yu-ri.
You can watch the trailer for Squid Game Season 2 below:
Squid Game Season 2 is scheduled to release on December 26, 2024, only on Netflix. Earlier this year, the streamer also announced a third and final season for Squid Game, which is set to premiere in 2025.
