11 ‘Squid Game’ Facts You Probably Didn’t Know
Netflix announced Sunday that the wildly popular South Korean show is greenlit for a second season. And while we wait Check out our picks for 11 Squid Game Facts You Probably Didn’t Know.
1. Originally, the show was called something else
Netflix announced plans for the series in September 2019, and it was originally called “Round Six.”
This collaboration with Netflix was creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s first time working with an international entertainment company.
2. The author has been working on the script for almost a decade.
Hwang began working on his script in 2008 and finished the first draft of it in 2009. It took the writer and director nearly six months to write the first two episodes alone.
He told Radio Times that at the time the story felt “unfamiliar and violent” and he worried people would find it too abstract to be commercialized and find a wider audience.
The creator said he also struggled with funding and casting until Netflix picked it up about a decade later.
“But after about 12 years, the world has changed into a place where such peculiar, violent survival stories are actually welcomed,” he told The Korea Times.
3. Doodles on the walls of the players’ room foreshadow the games.
The dorm walls, which are initially covered by beds, actually have drawings that serve as clues for the players to see which games will be played.
4. The phone number in the show’s first episode is also real.
Contestants get involved in the game by calling the eight-digit number on mysterious business cards.
Unfortunately, the phone number is real and belongs to a man who said he received about 4,000 calls a day. A South Korean presidential candidate actually offered to purchase the number from him.
5. One of the challenges in the show is now a TikTok trend.
The challenge with dalgona candy, a type of honeycomb toffee, has inspired TikTokers to create their own version.
The candy consists of two simple ingredients — sugar and baking soda — but the true challenge is eating around the image imprinted in the treat without breaking it.
“The production crew and I would joke about our series starting a dalgona craze, like how Netflix’s ‘Kingdom’ did with the gat ― a traditional Korean hat ― but I’m astounded that it actually happened,” the director told The Korea Times.
6. “Squid Game” may be assisting in the popularity of similar Netflix series.
Forbes reported that “Squid Game” is boosting similar shows that aren’t in English.
Since the show’s release, both the Japanese thriller series “Alice in Borderland” and Korean drama “Sweet Home” have been trending on Netflix.
7. It’s on course to be one of Netflix’s best-performing shows ever.
The show is rapidly becoming a sensation and is the first Korean drama to rank No. 1 on Netflix‘s top-10 show chart in the United States.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said “Squid Game” has a very good chance of being the streaming service’s most popular show ever.
8. In the final episode of “Squid Game,” a real-life news report is used.
Hwang told The Sunday Times that he wanted to highlight the reality for Korean families as much as possible during the series — so, during the last episode, he uses a real-life news report.
A news anchor says in the episode, “In this country household debt is on the rise, topping the global average. It’s the biggest increase in the world besides China due to lifted government restrictions on financial loans.”
Hwang said that this news report was from a couple of years ago and, due to the coronavirus, debt is now “ballooning.”
9. Hwang originally envisioned the masked guards as Boy Scouts.
Hwang also revealed in the “Still Watching Netflix” video that he originally wanted the masked guards to be in a “boy scout-like” uniform but said they showed “the men’s figure too well.”
He explained he wanted the guards to look like “ants in a colony.”
Chae said that the masks were inspired by traditional Korean masks called hahoetal and fencing masks.
“In the process, we added a line on it and it kind of made it look like an ant’s face which was the final design,” she added.
The sparkling animal masks worn by the CEOs are also significant.
Hwang also told The Sunday Times the masks helped show them as “very powerful animals” to “represent the power elite, the global CEOs.”
10. Hwang’s tactics from when he was younger inspired Gi-hun’s technique in the dalgona game.
In the Still Watching Netflix video, Hwang said Gi-hun’s technique of licking the dalgona, or honeycomb candy, to remove the shape was a technique he used as a kid.
“It’s how I won the grand prizes, which was not good news for the dalgona guy. It’s a legendary method,” he explained.
Hwang said that he also tried out the technique himself the night before filming the scene to check if it still worked.
Chae also added that the crew had to bring in a professional candy maker to make the dalgona whilst they were filming because if they bought it in bulk then it may have been too thick to lick through.
11. The candidates’ green clothes made the sets extremely dusty.
In the Still Watching Netflix video, Hwang and “Squid Game” art director Chae Kyung-sun said the green uniforms the contestants wore were not made out of good material.
“The outfit was not made for sports,” Hwang said. “It’s like the material of old gym clothes. So with 300 people, it got really dusty in there. It was hard to breathe. Some actors’ faces even turned red because of allergies.”
Source: https://bit.ly/3O1OtN8
