The creator of the wildly popular dystopian show “Squid Game” on Netflix, where people play games and die, said the world was ready for the show after former President Donald Trump.
“I conceived of the theories for the show in 2008,” the director Hwang Dong-hyuk shared with IndieWire.com via a translator. The comments were noted by the Hill in a piece published Tuesday.
“At the time, there was the Lehman Brothers crisis; the Korean economy was badly affected and I was also economically struggling,” he added. “Over the past 10 years, there were a lot of issues: There was the cryptocurrency boom, where people around the world, especially young people in Korea, would go all-in and invest all their money into cryptocurrencies. And there was the rise of IT giants like Facebook, Google, and in Korea, there’s Naver, and they are just restructuring our lives.” (REVIEW: ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Ends With The Possible Deaths Of Multiple Characters)
“It’s innovative but these IT giants also got very rich,” Dong-hyuk continued. “And then Donald Trump became the president of the United States and I think he kind of resembles one of the VIPs in the Squid Game. It’s almost like he’s running a game show, not a country, like giving people horror. After all these issues happened, I thought it was about time that this show goes out into the world.” (RELATED: REPORT: Netflix Says Chappelle’s Show ‘The Closer’ Will Not Be Taken Off Site Following Backlash Over LGBTQ Comments)
The shows features a game in which people play classic children’s games that could get them killed in hopes of winning a $40 million cash prize.
The director said initially he had the idea of making his idea into a film but over time that plan changed into making it a TV drama.
“The concept itself was not realistic at the time 10 years ago,” Hwang shared. “It was too bizarre and people thought it wouldn’t be a money-making film, also because it was violent and there would be some issue with ratings and the target audience would shrink.”
“But 10 years had passed and for Netflix, their distribution system is different from films; they have less restrictions, so I could go about my own way of making this film and I felt less pressure about these issues,” he added.