“Money” Is What Got Squid Game’s Creator to Return for Season 2

Squid Game is coming back for Season 2 later this December, and the creator behind it all revealed that “money” is what got him back for two more seasons of the series along with telling the rest of the story. Squid Game was one of the most surprising successes for Netflix in many years as it really took over the world when it debuted. But with the end of the first season, things felt a bit complete as while Gi-Hun was teasing he was going back for more, the story itself seemed to be fairly concluded. But then it was surprisingly revealed that there would actually be two more seasons to bring it all to an end.

Squid Game was a notable success for Netflix, but it was reported that series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk didn’t get as big of a payday as many fans had suspected from such a worldwide takeover. The creator had been very open about the struggles it took to get the first season to screens, so when asked by the BBC about why he was returning for more seasons overall, Dong-hyuk revealed that it was “Money” that brought him back. “Money…Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much…”

Squid Game Is A Money Maker

As reported by the LA Times around the first season of the series, Squid Game’s massive success from Season 1 did not result in any big cash fall for Hwang Dong-hyuk himself. The creator was paid a flat fee for the series and the rights (as per Netflix’s usual contracts with its K-drama creators), but did not see any bonuses based on its eventual success. Though there was awards success and more, Dong-hyuk sees this second season as a way to compensate for that first season, “…doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

But the creator also noted that there’s still more story to tell as well, “And I didn’t fully finish the story,” Dong-hyuk stated to BBC. But with a new story and new cast of characters to flesh out, the creator also stressed that “The stress I feel now is much greater.” And making this second season has also brought up new questions for the creator as well, “When making this series, I constantly asked myself ‘do we humans have what it takes to steer the world off this downhill path?’. Honestly, I don’t know,” 

How Will Squid Game End?

Squid Game Season 2 will be making its debut with Netflix on December 26th, and it will be followed by the third and final season of the series releasing some time in 2025. When asked about bringing the series to its ultimate end with three seasons, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told The Hollywood Reporter that the story seemed like it was coming to its natural ending with this final season. “When I was thinking about the idea for the ending of season three, I think it sort of naturally came to me that this was the finale,” Dong-hyuk stated.

“I believed that with that story, I was able to tell everything that I wanted to tell through the story of Squid Game and also in the perspective of Gi-hun as a character, and I thought that we don’t need any further stories from here,” Dong-hyuk continued. As the Netflix series prepares for that grand finale, it won’t be too much longer before we get to see how it ends for Gi-Hun and whatever other characters happen to survive until those final episodes.

via BBC