‘Squid Game’ Creator Explains Why He Added A Transgender Player For Season 2: “In Korea It’s Not So Widely Accepted Yet”

Netflix‘s Play octopus Season 2 follows Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he returns to the deadly competition he won in Season 1. His mission is to confront the shadowy cabal of VIPs and managers who run the game with that goal to end them once and for all.

**Spoilers to come Play octopus Season 2, now streaming on Netflix**

But because Gi-hun, aka Player 456, was the only player to survive his iteration of the Squid Game, series creator, writer, and director Hwang Dong-hyuk had to introduce 455 new contestants for Season 2. This time, there’s a young pregnant woman, an elderly mother protecting her hapless grown son, and, most striking of all, a transgender woman.

Playing 120, Hyung-ju (Park Sung-soon) immediately stands out thanks to his tall height and noble courage. During the first game, “Red Light, Green Light”, Gi-hun does her best to save as many players as possible, training them when to freeze, when to run, and when to stand in single file to minimize their goals. After Gi-hun crosses the finish line, he doubles back and returns to the kill field to bring a fallen player who has only been shot in the leg to safety. Only player 120 joins him, ensuring that all three finish in time. However, the wounded man is shot again by a sniper, eliminating him from the game.

All the way through Play octopus Season 2 sees Hyung-ju rally “weaker” players to victory. She is visibly heartbroken as she cannot save her closest ally in the brutal game of “Mingle” and one of the first to volunteer to join Gi-hun’s eventual rebellion.

When Decider asked Play octopus creator Hwang Dong-hyuk about the addition of a transgender character in Season 2, he compared the character’s purpose to Season 1 fan favorite Ali (Anupam Tripathi).

“I saw the people who come to attend the games Play octopus as people who are usually marginalized or neglected from society, and not just economically,” said Hwang. “In Season 1, the representative character for that was Ali, who was a foreigner working in Korea, which is one of the most representative minority groups in Korea.”

“Today, unfortunately, in Korean society, the gender minority is a group that is not as widely accepted in society,” he continued. “That’s why I created the character Hyun-ju as a male-to-female transgender woman.”

While American television is full of prominent transgender performers like Laverne Cox, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and Eliot Page, Hwang admitted that TV Guide’s Cat Moon to Play octopus struggled to get a Korean transgender actress to play Hyung-ju.

“In the beginning, we did our research and I thought about doing an authentic casting of a trans actor,” Hwang told TV Guide. “When we researched in Korea, there are hardly any actors who are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately the LGBTQ community in Korean society at the moment is pretty much still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking.”

As Hwang explained to Decider, “Compared to the past, it’s gotten better. But still, in Korea, being a gender minority is not that widely accepted yet. Unfortunately, it’s still seen that you’re very out of the norm.”

Hwang eventually cast Park Sung-soon as Hyung-ju. Park is a popular cisgender male actor in Korea who has a history of don’t shy away from queer roles. “I’ve seen his work ever since his debut, and I had full confidence in him that he would be the right person in terms of talent to portray this character,” Hwang told TV Guide.

Naturally, the decision to cast a cisgender actor in a transgender role has spurred controversy. However, Hwang told Decider that he hoped Hyun-ju was included Play octopus could pave the way for more mainstream acceptance of transgender people in Korea, which in turn could lead to more prominent transgender actresses.

“By creating a character similar to Hyun-ju and through her choices, her actions and the way she behaves in the game, I hope it can raise awareness of these issues that we face today ,” Hwang said.