‘Squid Game’ creator lost ‘8 or 9’ teeth from ‘Stress’ of Making Season 1

Play octopus creator Hwang Dong-hyuk knows how bad stress can be.

On Sunday, November 10, Dong-hyuk, 53, revealed in an interview with BBC that he lost several teeth while filming the first season of the hit Netflix show — which follows people in debt as they play deadly games to win a cash prize — all because of the strain of shooting it.

When asked about reports that he lost half a dozen teeth filming, Dong-hyuk straightened the socket and said, “It was eight or nine.”

Despite the toll on his health, he added that he decided to return to film a second season because of “money”, noting that he “didn’t make much” from the first season despite it was “a huge global success.”

Dong-hyuk told the outlet that he had received his payment in advance before the release of the series, so he was unable to fully cash in on the roughly $800 million it earned for Netflix.

“Doing the second series will also help compensate me for the success of the first,” he told the BBC, adding: “And I didn’t quite finish the story.”

Despite this, Dong-hyuk said the pressure is on to get the story right – especially because of the state of the world now compared to how it was three years ago.

“The stress I feel now is much greater,” he told the BBC. “New lines are being drawn. We are in an era of us vs them. Who is right and who is wrong?”

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The show’s creator teased how that would also play out in season 2, with characters including Lee Jung-jae returning “more desperate and determined” than ever to bring down the masked people behind the games, he told the BBC.

Dong-hyuk first announced that the second series would come in 2022, saying in a declaration“It took 12 years to bring the first season off Play octopus to life last year. But it took 12 days Play octopus becoming the most popular Netflix series of all time. As writer, director and producer of Play octopusa huge shout-out to fans all over the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show.”

Play octopus is Netflix’s most watched series in 94 countries, bringing in over 142 million member households and 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first four weeks. Dong-hyuk teased the plot of season 2 in June 2022.

“There are some other stories in the series that haven’t been addressed. For example, the story of the police officer and the story of his brother, the Frontman,” he said. The Hollywood Reporter in October 2021.

“So if I end up doing Season 2, I’d like to explore that story — what happens between the two brothers? And then I could also go into the story of the recruiter in the suit playing the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode.”

The director added, “And of course we could go with Gi-hun’s story when he returns and explore more about how he will navigate through his showdown with the people who design the games.”

Play octopus Season 2 will be released on Netflix on December 26, 2024.