Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the global phenomenon Squid Game, has revealed the immense toll the show took on his body and mind. In an interview with the BBC from the set of Squid Game’s second season, Dong-hyuk shared that the stress of making the first season caused him to lose “eight or nine teeth.”
That was just the beginning, however. Dong-hyuk stated he’s felt even more stress while working on the new episodes, which he admits he didn’t initially plan to create. “I have about two nightmares a week, usually about something going wrong during shooting or people saying that it’s not good,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
What drove Dong-hyuk to return for a second season despite the personal anguish? Money and an unfinished story. As he bluntly put it, “Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much. Therefore, embarking on the second series will serve as a compensatory measure for the initial success.
Squid Game, which revolves around impoverished contestants vying for a life-altering cash prize, resonated with the general fear of economic inequality. The show’s breakout success, with Netflix reporting it became the platform’s most-watched series ever, has only heightened the pressure Dong-hyuk feels to deliver again. “Seeing it from that angle, it’s going to be either my biggest success ever or the biggest failure,” he admitted.
Squid Game’s first season was a sleeper hit, with Netflix’s initial expectations for the show modest. “It was always a really big tentpole title for the Korea team,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s head of global TV at the time. “We knew it would be very big in Asia, so the marketing campaign was all about that.”
But the series went on to top Netflix’s most-watched charts in 94 countries, including the US, and earned 14 Emmy nominations, winning 6. Lead actor Lee Jung-jae made history as the first Asian to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Now, with season two arriving around the 2024 US presidential election, Dong-hyuk hopes to tap into the zeitgeist once again. His goal is to scrutinize the growing “demarcation” and “hostility” he observes in global societies, as individuals become more and more divided into opposing factions.
“I want to highlight the theme of taking sides,” Dong-hyuk said. “I wanted to pose the question: Is the majority always right?” While the first season allowed players to vote whether to continue the deadly games, this time the vote will be mandatory after each round, splitting the participants into clearly defined factions.
“We live in a democratic society, and everyone has their own right to vote, but the dominant side rules,” Dong-hyuk explained. “So I also wanted to pose the question: Is the majority always right?”
Beyond the high-stakes narrative, Dong-hyuk’s personal experiences have deeply informed Squid Game’s social commentary. Growing up poor after his journalist father’s death, Dong-hyuk watched his mother work multiple jobs to support the family. This inspired the backstory of Gi-hun, the flawed protagonist whose own financial struggles led him to the deadly competition.
The stark divide between affluent and impoverished communities in Los Angeles profoundly shaped Dong-hyuk’s perspective during his time as an international student in the US. “People talk about the American dream and its prosperity, but I was thinking, ‘Maybe this is what the real America looks like,'” he recalled.
With season two promising to be even darker than the first, Dong-hyuk is clearly willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing to bring his dystopian vision to life. And while the pressure mounts, he remains determined to “finish the story” he started—even if it costs him a few more teeth in the process.