‘Gihun and the Frontman Return’ Netflix Confirms Production of Squid Game Season 2

Production Underway Aiming for 2024 Halloween Release

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Netflix officially announced on the 13th that it will produce Season 2 of 'Ojingeo Game' (Squid Game).

On the same day, Netflix released a message from director Hwang Donghyuk announcing the start of production for Season 2 with the phrase "A new game begins."

Director Hwang said in the message, "Gi-hun and the Front Man are coming back," adding, "The man in the suit holding the ddakji might return, and you might also get to meet Young-hee's boyfriend Cheol-su." He continued, "We will meet again with even newer games and amazing stories."

Gi-hun, the protagonist of Ojingeo Game Season 1, is the final winner of the game played by Lee Jungjae. In Season 1, the Front Man, played by Lee Byunghun, was the overall game director.

The man in the suit who played the ddakji game with Gi-hun, played by Gong Yoo, is the character who encourages the public to participate in the game. Young-hee is the giant doll character that appeared in the first game, "Mugunghwa Flower Has Bloomed" (Korean version of Red Light, Green Light).

Director Hwang explained, "It took 12 years to bring Season 1 to the world, but it only took 12 days for 'Ojingeo Game' to become the most popular Netflix series in history."

Recently, Director Hwang attracted attention by expressing regret over the intellectual property (IP) contract of 'Ojingeo Game' in an interview with the American entertainment media Deadline.

In the interview, he said, "Because of the success of Ojingeo Game, I will be rewarded and able to do bigger things next, but if I could go back to the negotiation table at that time, I would have made sure at all costs that the contract involved sharing the intellectual property rights."

This was interpreted as his stance on the claim that Netflix owns the intellectual property rights of Ojingeo Game and monopolizes the profits from the success of Korean content.

He added, "There were reports that the economic value created by Ojingeo Game reached 1 billion dollars (about 1.3 trillion KRW), but the production cost was only 20 million dollars (about 2.6 billion KRW), so Ojingeo Game was a windfall for Netflix," and evaluated, "Netflix guaranteed free creative activities throughout the production process."

Meanwhile, Director Hwang stated regarding the announcement timing of 'Ojingeo Game' Season 2, "I am focusing on planning new games and characters to be reflected in the drama with the goal of announcing it on Halloween 2024."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.