‘Squid Game’ director reflects on on final season

“I’m very grateful to have created a work that was so well received. But I don’t think I could do it again.”

Hwang Dong-hyuk, 54, the creator and director of Squid Game, spoke candidly about the conclusion of the global hit series during an interview at a café in Seoul’s Jongno-gu district on Monday. Squid Game 3, released on June 27, marked the end of the saga. “To be honest, I feel like a burden has been lifted,” he said.

Squid Game launched in September 2021 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. The series won six Emmy Awards in 2022, the highest honors in American television, opening new doors for K-content on the global stage. Yet Hwang admitted that the success of Season 1 made continuing the story far more difficult. “After the huge success of Season 1, expectations were so high that the pressure was immense,” he said.

Hwang revealed that he struggled in particular with how to end the final season. Originally, the storyline called for Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) to complete the game and travel to the United States to reunite with his daughter. The ending that aired was the result of multiple revisions. “I rewrote the plot while reflecting on the story I really wanted to tell,” he said.

“The world has become more economically unequal than when we shot Season 1. War has spread, and yet people seem to lack the will or power to change the current situation," the director said. "I wanted to show that if things go on like this, the future will be grim.”

Seong Gi-hun’s final line, which trails off after the words “People are...,” was an intentional choice. Hwang explained that he wanted to leave the story open-ended. “In a time when many ask, ‘Why should I be the one to sacrifice?’ I wanted to suggest that someone has to break the cycle in order to offer hope. I believe Gi-hun gave that answer, not through words, but through action.”

Reactions to Season 3 have been mixed, with some viewers in Korea and abroad saying it lacked originality and failed to meet expectations. Hwang said he anticipated such criticism. “I completely understand. Different viewers have different expectations when it comes to entertainment, social commentary, or character development. I knew that no matter what we released, some would say it fell short.”

“Squid Game was the first project I conceived and wrote entirely on my own, without adapting existing material," he said. "That may have made it feel a bit uneven. But I don’t regret anything, because I gave everything I had at every step.”

Hwang has become a symbolic figure in the Korean content industry through Squid Game, but he offered a blunt critique of its current direction. “The K-content market may look flashy on the surface, but it’s rotten inside,” he said. “It’s true that global attention toward Korean content has increased. But only a few titles on streaming platforms are managing to survive. I believe we need to address this imbalance if we want to maintain a healthy ecosystem.”


김태언 기자 beborn@donga.com