Hwang also addressed the first season’s popularity, adding: “It took 12 years to bring the first season of ‘Squid Game’ to life last year.
“But it took 12 days for ‘Squid Game’ to become the most popular Netflix series ever. As a writer, director and producer of ‘Squid Game’, a huge shout out to fans around the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show.”
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Hwang first spoke of a second series to the Associated Press at a screening and Q&A in Los Angeles in December last year. He said (via Variety): “There’s been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season. So I almost feel like you leave us no choice! […] But I will say there will indeed be a second season. It’s in my head right now. I’m in the planning process currently.”
He also added that Lee Jung-jae will return as the main character Seong Gi-hun. But – there’s a twist. During a virtual panel with Weekly, he suggested that Gi-hun could potentially turn to the dark side, saying: “The Front Man [Lee Byung-hun] who was also a past winner but became a Front Man, it’s like Darth Vader. Some end up Jedi and some become Darth Vader, right? I think that maybe Gi-hun will go through a certain critical point where he is put through a test as well.”
Could Gi-hun really be the next Front Man? Hwang Dong-hyuk also said, “I’m not really in the right place to be discussing season two in an official setting, but if there were to be a season two, in the first season that we saw Gi-hun is a character whose humanity is shown through or exposed in certain situations.
Park Hae-soo as Cho Sang-woo, Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, HoYeon Jung as Kang Sae-byeok in Netflix’s Squid GameYOUNGKYU PARK/Netflix
“In other words, his humanity is shown through a very passive manner. But I would think that in the second season, what he has learned from the games and his experience in the first season, they will all be put to use in a more active manner.”
The rumour about the second season first staring doing the rounds on Twitter, with fans speculating that Hwang Dong-hyuk was planning a follow-up. Speaking to The Korean Times, Hwang seemed to confirm the rumour, saying, “After about 12 years, the world has changed into a place where such peculiar, violent survival stories are actually welcomed.”