Taking part in Squid Sport will be deadly, and it making sounds virtually as harmful — a minimum of on your tooth.
The creator of Netflix‘s South Korean hit sequence, Hwang Dong-hyuk, laughed as informed the BBC he had misplaced “eight or 9” tooth as a result of stress of constructing Season 1. It had beforehand been reported he’d misplaced six.
That may make you surprise why he’s returned to make extra. Hwang revealed from the set of Season 2 that like determined gamers in Squid Sport compete in literal life-or-death competitions tailored from kids’s video games to win an enormous money prizes, cash was the motivating issue that introduced him again for a second run.
Hwang has usually talked about how the license payment Netflix paid for his present, which he had been attempting to make for greater than a decade earlier than it acquired a greenlight, lower him out of the massive back-end revenues Squid Sport made when it surprising blew up high turn into the streamer’s largest hit in 2021.
“Despite the fact that the primary sequence was such an enormous international success, actually, I didn’t make a lot,” he informed the BBC. “So doing the second sequence will assist compensate me for the success of the primary one too. And I didn’t totally end the story.”
Compensation has been a significant matter of debate in Korea, which has turn into considered one of Netflix’s foremost worldwide priorities because of the artistic rush coming from the nation. Moreover Squid Sport, Korea has birthed The Glory and Extraordinary Lawyer Woo amongst others, with the streamer pledging $2.5BN funding in Korean content material in April 2023, to be spent over 5 years.
Nonetheless, lawmakers are involved in regards to the profit-sharing mannequin Netflix makes use of and about how its native dominance has pushed up prices. In an interview with Deadline final yr, the streamer’s VP of Content material for Korea, Don Kang, mentioned: “We’re working very laborious to reward our creators pretty and on the best stage potential. We pay upfront sums that mirror what might be calculated as residuals, which usually result in compensation at the next stage than if residuals had been paid.” He additionally claimed residual techniques had been an industry-wide difficulty and must be handled as such.
Netflix made a revenue of 12.1B gained ($8.M), final yr, and was the one streamer working within the black, in keeping with filings from earlier this yr. Income jumped 6.5% to 823.3B gained.
Squid Sport‘s second season returns on December 26 all over the world. It’s going to star Lee Jung-jae, who reprises his position as protagonist Gi-hun. Happening three years after Gi-hun gained the primary sport, he returns to play once more and destroy it after ditching his dream of touring to the states. The BBC reported the dormitory the place the contestants sleep at night time is split in two in Season 2, with gamers allowed to go away the sport if a majority decides.
The BBC additionally revealed there can be extra backstory to the villainous Entrance Man, who oversees the sport.“Individuals will see extra of the Entrance Man’s previous, his story and his feelings,” mentioned actor Lee Byung-hun, who performs the character. “I don’t assume it will make viewers heat to him, however it might assist them higher perceive his selections.”
Hwang jokingly mentioned that strain of manufacturing the second run meant his tooth had been aching once more: “I haven’t seen my dentist but, however I’ll in all probability have to tug out a couple of extra very quickly,” he mentioned.
Final month, we revealed David Fincher is growing a English-language Squid Sport sequence, which might increase a universe that additionally contains the unscripted hit Squid Sport: The Problem.
