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‘Squid Game’ Returns in Test of Netflix Global Marketing Muscle

Hwang Dong-hyuk Photographer: Presley Ann/Getty Images (Presley Ann/Photographer: Presley Ann/Getty )

(Bloomberg) -- For Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of Squid Game, the most popular show in Netflix Inc.’s history, writing and directing all nine of its dark, startling episodes was so intense that he lost seven or eight teeth during the process.

 “When I am very tired or stressed, I always have gum problems,” he said during an interview on a soundstage outside of Seoul. 

After the end of the first season, Hwang initially had no plans to keep the show going. But in the end, Netflix’s desire for recurring global hits eclipsed any lingering concern about collateral dental damage. Hwang got to work writing more episodes.

On Dec. 26, one day after Netflix shows its first pro football games, the second season of Squid Game will arrive with much fanfare. 

“People loved that first season — you saw Halloween costumes and people wanting to play the games and share iconography,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a recent interview. “People wanted more of it. When they love a show, they want to live it, experience it, connect with it.”

According to internal Netflix calculations, the first season of Squid Game had generated $900 million in value for the streaming company shortly after its September 2021 debut. With the arrival of season two, Squid Game stands out as one of the first TV shows from South Korea to spawn a global franchise, spanning everything from reality TV to video games to in-person fan experiences. 

Hwang’s anti-capitalist parable originated out of his own desperation. During the 2008 financial crisis, which devastated the South Korean film industry, the screenwriter, now 53, was down on his luck. With just a few credits to his name and less than $10 remaining in his bank account, he wrote a story about a survival game in which indebted, penniless Koreans compete to the death for an unimaginable fortune. 

Once completed, the original script proved too confusing, violent and expensive for any buyers in South Korea. While the idea languished unsold, Hwang found work directing a trio of movies for local studios. Eventually, he found a fresh buyer. 

Following the introduction of its streaming service in South Korea in 2016, Netflix was on the prowl for programming there that the major broadcast networks and movie studios had overlooked. Enter Hwang. From the start, given the popularity of South Korean film and TV across the region, Netflix’s team in Seoul believed that Squid Game could be a hit in its home country and potentially reach new viewers across Asia, where the streaming giant was investing tens of billions of dollars to grow its presence. 

In the fall of 2021, the show — an exploration of just how far despairing people will go to survive amid disturbing conditions — made its debut, landing in a world still intensely stressed-out from the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost overnight, the macabre series blew-up into a global phenomenon, topping Netflix’s list of the most-watched titles on every continent. Critics were similarly impressed, and Squid Game became the first foreign-language program ever nominated for best drama at the Emmy Awards while ricocheting through US culture. Saturday Night Live spoofed it, and YouTube star MrBeast made a real-life, Squid Game-inspired game show — the resulting video has since been viewed more than 660 million times. Netflix told Hwang that if he had a good idea, they’d love to keep the momentum going. 

Most Korean dramas last just one season, but Hwang had left the door open to extending the story with the way he ended the final episode — and there were other, economic reasons to press ahead. Netflix had paid for the first season almost entirely up front, so while many cast members would win international prizes and acting roles in Hollywood as a result of its success, they weren’t immediately sharing in the company’s windfall. A few months after the show’s premiere, the streaming giant did pay some of the talent one-time bonuses. Even so, Hwang felt motivated to write more episodes.  

As discussions for a second season ramped up, Hwang hired the powerful talent shop Creative Artists Agency as well as a Hollywood law firm that represents clients such as Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey. In the ensuing negotiations, his new team made sure that he would have plenty of money to address any future dental emergencies. 

“We felt doing a second season would provide a more adequate compensation, befitting the success of this show,” Hwang said. 

In May 2022, he started writing, eventually mapping out two additional seasons. By the summer of 2023, producers were back at work shooting new scenes at a soundstage outside of Seoul.

With the new programming coming down the pipeline, Netflix looked for other ways to extend the franchise.  The company ordered a reality show, adapted from the series and using a similar-looking set. It began developing a multiplayer video game based on the show. In New York, Netflix set up a commercial escape room experience where fans could test their own survival instincts. And the streaming giant held discussions with award-winning director David Fincher, the director of The Social Network and Fight Club, about the possibility of producing an English-language adaptation. 

Meanwhile, ahead of the show’s return in December, Netflix is rolling out ads everywhere from TV to billboards to New York subway cars, commencing one of the largest promotional campaigns in the company’s history. At a shopping center in the Philippines, Netflix has erected a replica of a giant, freaky doll that appeared in the first season. Several major consumer brands, including Crocs and Johnnie Walker, have teamed up with the company to create a slew of Squid Game-themed products. 

While Squid Game is a global phenomenon, it has paid especially big dividends in Asia, which has surpassed Latin America as the streaming service’s third-biggest region with 52.6 million customers, as of the end of September. In recent years, producers in South Korea have delivered several more global hits for Netflix, including Extraordinary Attorney Woo, All of Us Are Dead and The Glory. 

The third and final season of Squid Game will debut in 2025. After that, Hwang said, he’s ready to take a long break. “This is going to be my last series ever,” he said. “I don’t think I will do it ever again. Humanly, physically, mentally, I am just pushing my limit beyond what’s possible.”  

 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.