Back in the Game
On set in South Korea, RT gets an early glimpse of the follow-up to the hit drama, Squid Game
Netflix
- Benji Wilson
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How do you follow-up Netflix’s biggest ever show? For the director of Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk, coming up with Squid Game 2 was a huge challenge — not least because, as he admits speaking on set in South Korea, “nearly everyone died!”
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Nearly, but not quite everyone. The show’s hero Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, was the sole character who did make it through the first series’ gauntlet of deadly children’s games to take the first prize of 45.6 billion Korean Won (around £28 million). Now, he’s back in the game.
Squid Game creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk. Netflix
“Remember,” says director Hwang, “that at the end of season one, Gi-hun promised to find the guys who host the games. That’s the big storyline of season two: he goes into the game once again to find who that is. That’s why we’re here again.”
“Here” is a production studio in the South Korean city of Daejeon, an hour south of Seoul, on the set of Squid Game’s infamous maze stairs, a series of staircases looking like something created by MC Escher, which take the contestants from their lodgings to each of the games. Next to the maze stairs is the contestants’ dormitory — and with details of the new series plot kept top secret, it’s on our way between the two sets that Radio Times spots a clue.
Lee Jung-jae reprises his role as Gi-hun. Netflix
Passing the costume department, alongside the ranks of familiar green tracksuits and pink guards’ jumpsuits, we notice a box of patches: Xs and Os for the Squid Game players to wear alongside their numbers. What could it mean?
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“Aha!” says Hwang. “Well, if season one was about class differences, in season two I wanted to show people siding with other people and the animosity that creates. So those Xs and Os are simple symbols for players voting for who wants to stay in the game and who wants to leave.” Voting, factionalism, anger? In 2024? Once again it looks like Squid Game has tapped into the zeitgeist…
Authors
Benji Wilson
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