Netflix’s Squid Game is easily one of the biggest surprise hits on the streaming platform. While the series saw the streaming giant put in a tremendous amount of marketing effort before its arrival, no one could have anticipated Squid Game to set a new record and become the biggest launch on Netflix of all time. Due to its popularity, most audiences believed that a second season was pretty much guaranteed already.
Despite initial reports confirming that Netflix had already greenlit Squid Game’s second season, it appears that this isn’t the case just yet.
When is Netflix going to renew Squid Game for a second season?
Squid Game’s director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, explained in a Vulture interview that the confusion resulted from a mistranslated Associated Press interview. The director pointed out how the news agency mistranslated his words in the subtitles, changing what he said from “I think there will indeed be a Season 2” to “I will say there will indeed be a second season.”
An unnamed spokesperson from Netflix also corroborated Dong-hyuk’s claims, saying that Netflix’s second season is still “in discussions.
Going back to Dong-hyuk, the director shared how he felt the tremendous pressure of putting together a new script. He adds that the series had grown bigger than he’d expected and that he’s now choosing between working on a new Squid Game season or a different movie that he’d already planned to shoot once he finished working on Squid Game. Meanwhile, when asked why he thought Squid Game was so popular, Dong-Hyuk explained that the show’s themes of modern capitalism and economic inequality must have played a key role.
Dong-Hyuk’s sentiments are certainly understandable. No one could have ever predicted how big Squid Game would become. Whereas the first season of Squid Game came with little expectations and a relatively small budget, the highly anticipated second season would have a target on its back. Audiences will demand nothing less than perfection, putting pressure on Netflix to put in more money to ensure its success.
If it’s any consolation, Dong-Hyuk already has ideas for Season 2, so if and when it is confirmed, all he’s got to do is to execute it properly.
