The creator of Squid Game – Hwang Dong-hyuk shared that the movie was planned to become a Webtoon before it was released to Netflix.
Squid Game is a South Korean television series written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. The film stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi and Kim Joo-ryoung. The film was released online by Netflix on September 17, 2021 and quickly became a global craze.
However, few people know that the series’ creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has gone through a lot of difficulties to make the series as widely known as it is now, even before that he planned to release it. Squid Game in the form of Webtoon. However, all plans changed when Netflix decided to invest and acquire the project.
Hwang Dong-hyuk shared about his original plan, when he wanted to release Squid Game in Webtoon format and tried to follow extremely successful works like All of Us Are Dead, Sweet Home, etc.
Speaking to The Playlist, Dong-hyuk also first revealed the original concept for Squid Game: “I feel like the story in the work was ahead of our time at that time, and I always thought that maybe one day when the time comes, time passes and times change, maybe this story will be received and evaluated differently by the audience. In fact, in the past 10 years, I haven’t looked back at it, but I always keep that idea in mind. And when I felt the time was different from 2008 and 2009, it was also the perfect time to bring my ideas to the world.”
When asked about his original intentions when implementing the idea, Dong-hyuk revealed that Squid Game was planned to be released as a Webtoon: “I was really looking to turn Squid Game into a Webtoon series, and I think maybe we’ll do a Webtoon first, if the audience likes it, we can turn it into a live-action. So around 2018, I reread the manuscript for the first time in 10 years, and planned to have it ready before the adaptation.”
Hwang Dong-hyuk explained, “At that time, Netflix was just starting to do business in Korea, which was also the time when global movie streaming services were really becoming very popular. And I think if we only look at the Korean market, there will be a lot of limitations, but maybe with the global online service my story will go very far, it is also a good opportunity to help me. develope. So Netflix is a good home for Squid Game.”
After its release, the film received critical acclaim and international attention. Attracting more than 142 million household members in its first 4 weeks of release, it is Netflix’s most watched series to date and overtakes Bridgerton as the most watched series with over 1, 65 billion hours in the first 28 days. The film also received many major awards such as the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama by O Yeong-su, 3 awards at the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards; including Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, among other awards. Besides that in the future, season 2 and even season 3 of the series is currently in development.
>>> See More: Taika Waititi praises Christian Bale’s performance as Gorr
>>> Get the latest news about movies/story here.