Hwang Dong-hyuk

Hwang Dong-hyuk
Born	Hwang Dong-hyuk May 26, 1971 Seoul, South Korea
Gender	Male
Occupation	Director Writer Executive Producer Showrunner
Works on	Squid Game

Hwang Dong-hyuk (황동혁 Hwang Dong-hyeog^?) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter best known for creating the Netflix survival drama series Squid Game. He conceived of the idea for Squid Game based on his own economic struggles early in life as well as the class disparity found within South Korea.

Though initially scripted in 2008, Hwang was unable to find a production studio to find support for the script until around 2019, when Netflix invested in it as part of their drive to expand their foreign programming offerings. Released on September 17, 2021, the show's first season became the most-watched series launch in Netflix history. The stress of creating the series caused him to lose six of his teeth. The second season was released on December 26, 2024, with the third and final season scheduled for release in 2025.

Due to Squid Game's success, Netflix brought Hwang's previous films Silenced, Miss Granny, and The Fortress to the service in the United States and other countries. Hwang won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 2022 for directing the Squid Game episode "Red Light, Green Light", making him the first South Korean to win an Emmy in that category. Hwang received the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit from President Yoon Suk Yeol, which is the highest decoration awarded to those who have contributed to culture and arts.

Career

Around 2008, Hwang had tried unsuccessfully to get investment for a different movie script that he had written, and he, his mother, and his grandmother had to take out loans to stay afloat, but still struggled amid the debt crisis within the country. He spent his free time in a Manhwabang (South Korean manga cafe) reading Japanese survival manga such as Battle Royale, Liar Game and Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji. Hwang compared the characters' situation in these works to his own current situation and considered the idea of being able to join such a survival game to win money to get him out of debt, leading him to write a film script on that concept throughout 2009. Hwang stated, "I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we've all met in real life." Hwang feared the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre" at the time. Hwang tried to sell his story to various Korean production groups and actors, but had been told it was too grotesque and unrealistic. Hwang put this script aside without any takers, and over the next ten years successfully completed three other films, including the crime drama film Silenced (2011) and the historical drama film The Fortress (2017).

In the 2010s, Netflix had seen a large growth in viewership outside of North America, and started investing in productions in other regions, including Korea. In 2018, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, stated that they were looking for more successes from overseas productions: "The exciting thing for me would be if the next Stranger Things came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood." Netflix had opened up a division in Asia in 2018, and while they were still operating out of temporary leased office space in Seoul, Hwang brought his script to their attention. Kim Minyoung, one of Netflix's content officers for the Asian regions, recognized Hwang's talent from The Fortress and his other films, and upon seeing his script for Squid Game, knew they needed it for the service. Kim said "[W]e were looking for shows that were different from what's traditionally 'made it,' and Squid Game was exactly it". In September 2019 Netflix formally announced that they would produce Hwang's work as an original series. Netflix's Bela Bajaria, head of global television operations, said of their interest in Hwang's work that "we knew it was going to be big in Korea because it had a well-regarded director with a bold vision", and that "K-Dramas also travel well across Asia". Regarding his return to the project, Hwang commented, "It's a sad story. But the reason why I returned to the project is because the world 10 years from then has transformed to a place where these unbelievable survival stories are so fitting, and I found that this is the time when people will call these stories intriguing and realistic." Hwang further believed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economic disparity between classes in South Korea, and said that "All of these points made the story very realistic for people compared to a decade ago".

With the Netflix order, the film concept was expanded out to a nine-episode series. Kim stated that there was "so much more than what was written in the 120-minute format. So we worked together to turn it into a series." Hwang said he was able to expand the script so that it "could focus on the relationships between people [and] the stories that each of the people had". Initially, Netflix had named the season Round Six, rather than Squid Game as Hwang had suggested; according to Netflix's vice president for content in Asia Kim Minyoung, while they knew that the name "squid game" would be familiar to Korean viewers from the children's game, it "wouldn't resonate because not many people would get it", and opted to use Round Six as it self-described the nature of the competition. It has been titled as such in Brazil. As production continued, Hwang pushed on the service to use Squid Game instead; its cryptic name and unique visuals helped to draw in curious viewers, according to Kim. At the time that Hwang wrote the season, his goal was to have the season reach the most-watched show in Netflix in the United States for at least one day. Hwang had initially written the season as eight episodes, which was comparable to other Netflix shows, but found that the material for the last episode was longer than he planned, so it was split into two.

Due to the stress of writing and producing the first series of nine episodes himself, Hwang initially had no immediate plans to write a second season to Squid Game, and did not have well-developed plans for a follow-up story and said that if he were to write one, he would likely need a staff of writers and directors to help him. However, with the immense popularity of the show, Hwang later opined about the possibility of a second season in 2021, telling CNN, "There's nothing confirmed at the moment, but so many people are enthusiastic that I'm really contemplating it." Hwang also said in an interview with The Times that a second season may focus more on the story of the Front Man as well as incorporating more about the police: "I think the issue with police officers is not just an issue in Korea. I see it on the global news that the police force can be very late in acting on things—there are more victims or a situation gets worse because of them not acting fast enough. This was an issue that I wanted to raise." He added that he also wanted to explore the relationship between the cryptic Front Man and his policeman brother Hwang Jun-ho, as well as the background of the salesman character (portrayed by Gong Yoo). Speaking about the games that appear in the season, Hwang said "They are once again simple children's games that a lot of kids in Korea grew up playing. I remember being on set and being reminded of my childhood days" but he also wanted to open up the games to be more universally recognized this time "In many different countries around the world, there will be some kind of version similar to these games that you probably have played as a child,...They're going to be both very easy to understand and play, and very fun." The second season was released on December 26, 2024, with the third and final season scheduled for release on June 27, 2025.

Due to Squid Game's success, Netflix brought Hwang's previous films Silenced, Miss Granny, and The Fortress to the service in the United States and other countries. Hwang won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 2022 for directing the Squid Game episode "Red Light, Green Light", making him the first South Korean to win an Emmy in that category. Hwang received the Geumgwan Order of Cultural Merit from President Yoon Suk Yeol, which is the highest decoration awarded to those who have contributed to culture and arts. Hwang had also worked with Netflix to create a mockumentary inspired by Squid Games success, titled The Best Show on the Planet. Hwang said the comedy was based on his own personal experience of being pushed into the spotlight due to the rapid success of Squid Game.

Trivia

• He will make a cameo as a minor character in Season 3.

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