Squid Game creator returned for round 2 because he "didn’t make much" the first time

When the teaser for the second season of Squid Game debuted, fan’s biggest question was: Why would Lee Jung-jae’s character Seong Gi-hun play this deadly game again? The answer is probably quite similar to that of the show’s creator Hwang Dong-hyuk when asked why he decided to make another installment of the Netflix series. As he says “without hesitation” in a new BBC interview, his primary motivation was “Money.”

Despite the fact that Netflix has made a multi-billion dollar investment into South Korean television, that money is not necessarily making its way directly into the hands of creatives. Writers and actors alike have expressed dissatisfaction with Netflix’s practices, and the Korea Broadcasting Actors Union attempted to meet with the company last year over issues such as not receiving any residual pay for their work. Netflix pretty much blew them off and released a statement saying it was “following all local laws and regulations.” According to the BBC, Hwang hopes that being transparent about pay problems will help to create change. “Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he explains. (In 2021, Netflix proudly boasted that Squid Game was its biggest launch ever.) “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

The writer-director has creative reasons for returning to Squid Game, as well: he “didn’t fully finish the story.” The BBC piece has some tidbits about what the game is going to be like this time around. It’s possibly even darker than before, reflecting Hwang’s “pessimistic” attitude about the world, particularly in regard to “new lines being drawn” and people being forced to choose sides. “When making this series, I constantly asked myself ‘do we humans have what it takes to steer the world off this downhill path?'” He says. “Honestly, I don’t know.”