Hwang Dong-hyuk, the writer, director, and creator of the worldwide phenomenon Squid Game, has revealed he lost six teeth during production. Hwang didn’t lose them playing a deadly game of Red Light, Green Light, or a violent game of tug of war. He lost them due to stress.
“This was a nine-episode series, and I was the only one who was writing the scripts and directing the whole thing, so it was a really physically, mentally, emotionally challenging task,” Hwang told The Hollywood Reporter. “And the story doesn’t exactly have the simplest concept, so as we were going along, new ideas were coming to me, or I would see flaws that I felt needed to be corrected, so I was, in fact, revising the script as I was filming the whole series.
“So that’s partly why I had a huge amount of stress,” he continued. “Which led to me losing six teeth during production, which I’ve mentioned in some other interviews.” The stress of making the show has left Hwang wondering if he even wants to make a second series.
“The pressure on me is huge now, with such a big audience waiting for a season two,” he explained. “Because of all that pressure, I haven’t decided yet whether or not I should do another season.”
Still, the popularity of the TV series has some advantages. Hwang admitted that with all the ideas fans are coming up with for a potential second season it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a compelling story.
“I could actually pull ideas from fans all around the world to create the next season, he said. “I think that’s what I’m wrestling with right now — that I shouldn’t just view it as a huge amount of pressure, but think of all of this love and support I’m receiving as a big box of inspiration that I can leverage for season two.”
Squid Game has become a pop-culture juggernaut since its September 17 release. According to the streaming service Netflix, it overtook Bridgerton as their most-viewed series this week, and the show’s iconic jumpsuits are this year’s must-have Halloween costume.