Ahead of ‘Squid Game’ Season 2, Creator Says He’s ‘Sick Of Squid Game’

Squid Game season 2 is almost here for Christmas (the 26th), the perfect family show for the day after you open presents (ehh). Squid Game has become a truly bizarre phenomenon, what was clearly intended as a standalone series after a decade of trying to get either a movie or a season of a show made, but its explosive success as Netflix’s most popular show of all time by a solid margin meant that more was just… mandatory.

Squid Game has now turned into a full brand complete with merch, reality series, video games and of course a second season. But the creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, is pretty much over it after taking over three years to make Season 2. Here he is speaking to Variety:

“I’m so exhausted. I’m so tired. In a way, I have to say I’m so tired of ‘Squid Game,'” Hwang says in a moment of openness. “I’m so tired of my life doing something , promotes something. So I’m not thinking about my next project right now. I’m just thinking about going to a remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix…Not the ‘Squid Game’ island.”

I don’t think Hwang Dong-hyuk is “ungrateful” for his success or anything, but you can imagine the pressure it took to start a second season of a show you probably never planned on doing, and how Netflix needed it to be a huge hit like the first (it remains to be seen, but I’d be surprised if it hit the heights of the original). Keep in mind, this is a man who said nine of his teeth fell out from the stress of filming the first season of the show. And that was before it was even this huge hit.

I wonder if that Squid Game season 2 is really another huge hit (it’s going to be huge, I just don’t know if it will seam huge and viral like Season 1) if Netflix is ​​willing to let this go, with or without Hwang Dong-hyuk. If he’s just…done after this, and given all this, I wouldn’t blame him, would they bring in another director and writer to keep it going? It sounds like it would be a bad idea, but Netflix has clearly been trying to make a Squid Game empire, and I don’t imagine they’re willing to let it go after just two seasons, even though they were three years from each other.

I hope Hwang Dong-hyuk gets the rest he deserves after doing this show, as it very much sounds like he needs it.

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