94 Fun Facts About Squid Game

Who created, wrote and directed Squid Game?

Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed all nine episodes of season one himself; his earlier features include Silenced, Miss Granny and The Fortress.

In what year did Hwang Dong-hyuk write the original Squid Game script?

Hwang wrote it in 2009 while struggling with debt of his own, drawing on Japanese survival manga he had been reading in a comic cafe. Netflix only took an interest around 2019.

What did South Korean producers keep telling Hwang his story was, when he spent years trying to sell it?

Hwang himself worried the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre", and the companies he pitched agreed, calling it too grotesque and unrealistic. He shelved it and made three other films instead.

Under what title did Netflix originally plan to release Squid Game?

Netflix worried the Korean children's game would mean nothing to international viewers and preferred Round 6, which described the format. Hwang pushed for his own title, and its strangeness turned out to be part of the draw.

How many debt-ridden players enter Squid Game's secret contest at the start of season one?

The 456 players are all in deep financial hardship, and the prize pot grows by ₩100 million for each one eliminated.

The endless pastel staircases in the players' quarters were modelled on the drawings of which artist?

Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun drew on Escher's four-dimensional stair drawings, Relativity among them, and described the resulting stairways as "a form of bondage for the contestants".

The warren of tunnels linking the arena, dormitory and offices was designed to imitate what?

Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun modelled the warren of corridors on an ant colony, a branching maze in pastel colours built so the players feel trapped inside something designed to control them.

The masked guards wear a circle, a triangle or a square. What does the shape tell you?

Circles are the workers, triangles the soldiers and squares the managers. The three shapes are also the markings of the playing field for the Korean children's game the show is named after.

The players' green tracksuits were modelled on what kind of clothing?

The costume team took the tracksuits from trainingbok, the athletic wear of 1970s Korea. Giving players and guards each a single flat colour was meant to strip away individuality.

How far off the ground was the Glass Stepping Stones set actually built?

The vertigo was added in post-production with chroma key screens. Even so, 1.5 metres was enough to make the cast visibly nervous, which helped the scene. The tug-of-war set really was more than 10 metres up.

The three characters Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo and Oh Il-nam take their names from what?

Hwang named them after boys he grew up with, including one called Hwang Jun-ho who had an older brother named Hwang In-ho — a pairing the series reuses.

The protagonist's history as a laid-off car worker was drawn from which real South Korean event?

Hwang based Gi-hun's background on the organisers of the 2009 SsangYong Motor strike against mass layoffs, the same year he was writing the script.

How many Primetime Emmy Awards did the first season take home?

Six wins from fourteen nominations, plus a Golden Globe. The nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, a first for a show not in English.

Why was Lee Jung-jae's 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series historic?

No non-English-speaking performance had ever taken the category, and Lee was also the first Asian man to win it.

What is the grand prize on offer to the winner of the games?

The prize is ₩45.6 billion: ₩100 million for each of the 456 players, added to the pot as each one is eliminated, roughly $38 million at 2021 exchange rates.

The series is named after ojingeo nori, which is what?

Ojingeo nori, 'squid play', is a Korean children's game played on a court of a circle, triangle and square drawn to resemble a squid; ojingeo means squid.

On what date was the first season released worldwide on Netflix?

Squid Game premiered worldwide on Netflix on September 17, 2021; Netflix reported 142 million member households watched it in its first four weeks, its biggest series launch to that point.

What colour jumpsuits do the masked guards wear?

The guards wear pink jumpsuits with black masks, a deliberate contrast with the players' green tracksuits; only the Front Man dresses in black.

What is the relationship between detective Hwang Jun-ho and the Front Man?

They are brothers, and season two has Jun-ho join Gi-hun in the hunt for the island to end the game for good.

How many years after winning the game does Gi-hun re-enter it in season two?

Season two picks up three years after Gi-hun's win; he has spent that time hunting the recruiter and re-enters the games as Player 456 to shut them down.

In Squid Game season one, Gi-hun allies with which player, his childhood friend from the old neighbourhood?

Cho Sang-woo is the neighbourhood's pride, a Seoul National University graduate who is on the run for fraud when he joins the games.

In season two, which North Korean defector is recruited to guard the players?

Kang No-eul, played by Park Gyu-young, is a North Korean defector and former soldier who takes a guard's uniform while searching for the daughter she left behind.

Which pregnant player does Gi-hun ally with in season two?

Kim Jun-hee, Player 222, is pregnant by fellow player Myung-gi; she gives birth during season three, and her baby is ultimately declared the games' winner.

How many views did season two rack up in its first four days, breaking Netflix's premiere record?

Netflix reported 68 million views for season two in its first four days after the December 26, 2024 release, beating the 50.1 million that Wednesday's first season had set.

In how many countries did season two rank number one, according to Netflix?

Netflix reported that season two ranked number one in 92 countries in its first week after its December 26, 2024 release.

Which Umberto Eco-inspired project was Hwang working on in 2022 between seasons?

Hwang announced Killing Old People Club in 2022, a film drawn from Umberto Eco's essay collection Pape Satàn Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society, and warned it would be more violent than Squid Game.

What is the name of the giant robot doll Young-hee's 'boyfriend', introduced in season two's post-credits scene?

Cheol-su is the boy doll paired with Young-hee; he turns up in season three's jump-rope game, where the two dolls swing the rope over the players.

Which Hollywood star cameos in the finale as a recruiter for an American version of the games?

Cate Blanchett appears in the series finale playing ddakji against a man in an American alley, a recruiter for a US game; Hwang said the cameo was not meant to set up any spin-off.

How had Hwang originally written the ending of the final season before changing it?

He rewrote it so Gi-hun sacrifices himself for Jun-hee's baby, a symbol of the next generation.

How many players are left after season one's Red Light, Green Light?

Red Light, Green Light kills 255 of the 456 players, leaving 201; they then vote 101 to 100 to end the games, with the pot at that point standing at ₩25.5 billion.

Which Squid Game episode won Hwang Dong-hyuk the 2022 Emmy for drama directing, the first for a South Korean in that category?

"Red Light, Green Light" made Hwang the first South Korean to win the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

Which of Hwang's earlier films is set during the Second Manchu invasion of Korea and stars Lee Byung-hun?

The Fortress (2017) dramatises the 1636 Qing siege of Namhansanseong, with Lee Byung-hun as the minister Choi Myung-kil; Netflix's Kim Minyoung knew Hwang's work from it when his script arrived.

Broke in a manga cafe, Hwang read which Japanese survival manga, seeding the show?

Hwang has said he read Battle Royale, Liar Game and Kaiji in a Seoul manga cafe around 2008 while deep in debt, and imagined entering such a contest himself.

Before acting, Lee Jung-jae worked in what profession?

He was discovered by designer Ha Yong-soo while working at a cafe in Apgujeong-dong.

Which 1995 Korean drama turned Lee Jung-jae into a national heartthrob as a silent bodyguard?

Sandglass (1995) cast Lee Jung-jae as Baek Jae-hee, a near-silent bodyguard; the role made him a star, and the drama's ratings topped 60 percent.

Dalgona, the honeycomb candy of Squid Game's second game, goes by what other Korean name?

Ppopgi, roughly 'pick-out', is the other name for dalgona, the honeycomb toffee sold by Korean street vendors, whose sales jumped after the show aired.

What makes dalgona puff up into a light, crunchy candy?

Cooks stamp the hot disc with a cookie cutter, and players in the show must extract the shape intact.

How many episodes did Hwang originally plan for season one before splitting the finale in two?

Hwang planned eight episodes, but the final one ran long and was split in two, giving season one its nine episodes.

Which composer, fresh from scoring Parasite, wrote and directed the Squid Game score?

Jung Jae-il, who had scored Bong Joon-ho's Okja and Parasite, composed Squid Game; he brought in Park Min-ju and the music director '23' so the score would not become monotonous.

Which piece of classical music wakes the players each morning in Squid Game?

The finale of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto is piped into the dormitory as the morning wake-up call, while Strauss's Blue Danube plays as the players are marched to each game.

A cover of which standard plays over the deadly Red Light, Green Light game in episode one?

Hwang wanted the romantic melody, sung by Joo Won Shin, to clash with the brutal killing of the players.

Squid Game's giant doll in 'Red Light, Green Light', her hairstyle based on Hwang's daughter's, was inspired by a character from what?

A 1970s Korean textbook cover is where Young-hee came from: the Chul-soo and Young-hee readers of the 1970s and 80s.

On which island in Ongjin County were Squid Game's island scenes filmed?

Seongapdo, a small island in Incheon's Ongjin County, supplied the island exteriors; the game arenas and most interiors were built on sound stages in Daejeon.

The recruiter's ddakji tiles were inspired by which Japanese urban legend?

Hwang took the red and blue ddakji from the Japanese school legend known as Red Paper, Blue Paper, in which the spirit Aka Manto asks a toilet-stall victim to choose a colour, and either choice means death.

Which earlier Hwang Dong-hyuk film had Gong Yoo, the recruiter, already starred in?

Gong Yoo led Hwang's 2011 drama Silenced, about abuse at a school for deaf children; Lee Byung-hun had likewise worked with Hwang on The Fortress, and both took their cameos as favours.

What theme did the designers choose for the VIP room and its masked guests' costumes?

The VIPs' theme is animals: gilded masks of a lion, tiger, bear and deer among them; designer Chae Kyoung-sun wanted a powerful, instinctive look for people who treat other humans as game pieces.

Hwang's hope was simply to top Netflix for one day — in which market?

Hwang said his ambition was to be Netflix's most-watched show in the United States for a single day; instead season one reached number one in 94 countries.

In which Seoul neighbourhood does Gi-hun live with his mother in season one?

Gi-hun and his mother live in Ssangmun-dong in Seoul's northern Dobong District, the neighbourhood where Hwang Dong-hyuk himself grew up and where Sang-woo's mother keeps her fish stall.

Which player number does Kang Sae-byeok wear in season one?

Kang Sae-byeok is Player 067; Ali Abdul is 199, the gangster Deok-su 101 and Gi-hun's childhood friend Sang-woo 218.

How much money is at stake in each round of ddakji the Recruiter plays in the subway?

The stake is ₩100,000 a round: the Recruiter pays it each time he loses, while Gi-hun, unable to pay, takes a slap for each of his own losses, then leaves with the cash and a calling card.

In Squid Game season one, what job did Gi-hun hold, a decade after losing his post at an automobile plant?

Chauffeur work paid the bills, barely: Gi-hun borrowed from his mother, the bank and loan sharks to feed his gambling.

What is the profession of Player 111, who trades with corrupt guards for game tips?

Player 111, Byeong-gi, is a doctor who harvests organs from dead players for the black market in exchange for advance word on each game, until the Front Man cuts off the leak.

How long do players have to extract their dalgona shape in the second game?

Players get 10 minutes to free the shape; Sang-woo, having guessed the game from the set, quietly picked the simplest shape, the triangle, and left Gi-hun with the umbrella.

In Squid Game's glass bridge game, how does the Front Man strip glass worker Player 017 of his edge?

He turns off the lights: Do Jung-soo had been reading the tempered panels by eye, and with the clock running Sang-woo shoves him onto the next panel to find out which is safe.

Who drags the gangster Deok-su off the glass bridge to their shared death?

Deok-su had refused to move and pressured others to test the panels ahead of him; Mi-nyeo, whom he had earlier abandoned, took her revenge in the fall.

Jun-ho's search of the Front Man's files reveals the games have been running for how long?

The files go back to 1988, so the games had run for over 30 years by 2020; the archive also lists Jun-ho's missing brother, Hwang In-ho, as the 2015 winner, which is how he became the Front Man.

The finale's title, 'One Lucky Day', borrows from a Korean novel published in which year?

Hyun Jin-geon's short story A Lucky Day appeared in 1924; its rickshaw puller, thrilled by a day of good fares, brings home soup for his sick wife only to find her dead.

The doll's sing-song chant in the first game refers to which flower?

Mugunghwa, the rose of Sharon, is South Korea's national flower; the Korean episode title translates as 'The day the hibiscus bloomed'.

The finalists' candlelit dinner in episode eight echoes which artist's installation?

Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun modelled the finalists' dinner, laid for three under a single light, on Judy Chicago's 1979 installation The Dinner Party, a triangular table of place settings.

What does gganbu, the word Il-nam teaches Gi-hun in the marbles game, mean?

Gganbu is a neighbourhood word for a trusted partner who shares everything, marbles and ddakji included; Il-nam invokes it as he hands Gi-hun his last marble.

Making the first season took such a toll on Hwang that he had how many teeth pulled?

He said he had neglected his dental health during production, and it took nearly six months just to write the first two episodes.

Season one was accused of copying which 2014 Japanese film of deadly children's games?

Hwang said he had been writing since 2008 and only learned of the film, whose Daruma-san ga koronda sequence mirrors the doll game, during filming.

MrBeast's real-life recreation of the games offered what cash prize?

MrBeast's November 2021 video '$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!' put 456 contestants through non-lethal versions of the games for a $456,000 prize; it passed 300 million views within a year.

Which guest host fronted SNL's October 2021 Squid Game country-song parody?

Host Rami Malek joined Pete Davidson for a country ballad about two broke men signing up for the games on the October 16, 2021 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Roughly how much did the first season cost Netflix to produce?

Bloomberg put the budget at about $21.4 million for nine episodes, roughly $2.4 million each, against an internal Netflix 'impact value' of nearly $900 million.

In season two, the Recruiter offers people sleeping rough a choice between bread and what?

Most take the gamble, and he then stamps the uneaten loaves into the ground; the episode is titled 'Bread and Lottery'.

The Recruiter forces Mr. Kim and Woo-seok into Russian roulette combined with which game?

They play rock paper scissors minus one, the loser pulling the trigger each round; Mr. Kim throws the game to spare his underling Woo-seok, and the Recruiter later dies in his own roulette match against Gi-hun.

Under what false name does the Front Man pose as Player 001 in season two?

Posing as Oh Young-il, Player 001, the Front Man casts the deciding vote to continue after the first game; in the finale, masked again, he executes Jung-bae before a Gi-hun who does not yet know him.

Season two's six-legged pentathlon is played in teams of how many?

Five players tied at the ankles must clear five traditional games, gonggi and jegi among them, within five minutes.

Which season-two game has players form groups of a called-out size and rush into rooms?

Players ride a spinning carousel until a number is called, then must fit exactly that many into a room before the doors lock.

In season two, which two symbols do players wear to mark how they voted?

After each vote the players wear O and X badges, O to continue and X to leave, in blue and red; Hwang used the split to dramatise forced division, and the redesigned dormitory is divided by the same colours.

Who kills the rapper Player 230 during the bathroom brawl in season two?

Myung-gi, Player 333, stabs Thanos with a fork during the bathroom fight; the rapper had hounded him all season over the crypto coin Myung-gi promoted, which wiped out Thanos's savings.

Choi Seung-hyun, who plays rapper Player 230, was the lead rapper of which boy band?

Choi Seung-hyun rapped as T.O.P in BigBang, the YG group behind 'Fantastic Baby'; his 2017 marijuana conviction made the casting so touchy in Korea that a morning show blurred his face.

How does Sang-woo cheat Ali out of his marbles in season one?

Sang-woo persuades Ali to let him hold both bags 'for safety', then swaps Ali's bag of marbles for stones, handing back a pouch of pebbles and walking off; Ali, Player 199, is shot.

A line about Dae-ho's father prompted a boycott of season two in which country?

Jung-bae praises Dae-ho's father for having fought in the Vietnam War, calling him 'a good person'; Vietnamese viewers took it as honouring South Korean troops' conduct there and called for a boycott.

Which Britain's Got Talent winner sings 'Nessun dorma' in the season-two premiere?

Paul Potts, the 2007 Britain's Got Talent winner, is heard singing 'Nessun dorma' in the premiere; the episode also uses Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli's 'Time to Say Goodbye' over the Recruiter's games.

Jo Yu-ri, who plays pregnant Player 222, found fame in which girl group?

Jo Yu-ri placed third on Produce 48 in 2018, earning her place in Iz*One; she went solo after the group disbanded in April 2021.

Before playing the crypto scammer Player 333, Yim Si-wan sang in which boy band?

Yim Si-wan debuted in 2010 with the nine-member boy band ZE:A under Star Empire, then moved into acting with the film The Attorney and the drama Misaeng.

What is the first game of the final season, fought with keys and knives?

Armed taggers hunt hiders through a maze while the hiders search for exits using three types of key.

Which player stabs her own son to stop him killing the new mother in the maze game?

Yong-sik had failed to eliminate anyone and turned on the weakest hider; the guards shoot him, and a grief-stricken Geum-ja takes her own life soon after.

What is the season-three finale's platform-shoving contest called?

Across three rounds, players shove each other off elevated platforms; Gi-hun chooses to throw himself off rather than the baby.

At the very end, In-ho brings Gi-hun's bloodied tracksuit to his daughter in which city?

In-ho flies to Los Angeles to hand Gi-hun's daughter Ga-yeong the tracksuit and his prize money; moments later he spots an American recruiter playing ddakji in an alley there.

What record did the third season set on its Netflix debut?

It logged 60.1 million views in three days and held the top spot in all 93 countries for a full week.

What cash prize did the 456 players of Squid Game: The Challenge compete for?

The Challenge's $4.56 million pot was the largest single cash prize in reality TV history at the time, and its 456 contestants the biggest cast ever assembled for a reality show.

Who won the first season of Squid Game: The Challenge?

Mai Whelan, Player 287, a Vietnamese-born Virginian, beat Phill Cain in the 2023 final, a rock-paper-scissors contest for keys to the prize safe.

Where was the first season of Squid Game: The Challenge filmed?

Shooting used Cardington Studios in Bedford plus six soundstages in Barking, East London; several players claimed the doll game ran for hours in an unheated hangar.

O Yeong-su, who played Il-nam, made history at the 2022 Golden Globes how?

O Yeong-su became the first Korean actor to win a Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actor in a Series for Il-nam; on stage since 1963 and often cast as monks, he had no agent, so his daughter fielded the offers.

Lee You-mi won an Emmy for playing Ji-yeong in which category?

Lee You-mi won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the 2022 Creative Arts Emmys, the first Korean performer to win an acting Emmy; she had already played a very different schoolgirl in All of Us Are Dead.

Anupam Tripathi, who plays the Pakistani migrant Ali, was born in which country?

Hwang cast him for his fluent Korean and emotional range; his Instagram following jumped from 10,000 to over 2.5 million in days.

Before acting, Heo Sung-tae (gangster Deok-su) sold what for LG in Russia?

Heo majored in Russian at Pusan National University and sold televisions for LG Electronics in Russia before, he says, drunkenly signing up for SBS's Miracle Audition talent show in 2011.

Wi Ha-joon, who plays detective Jun-ho, grew up on his family's farm raising what?

Wi Ha-joon grew up on Soando, an island in Wando County off South Jeolla, where his family farms abalone; Wando produces most of South Korea's abalone.

Lee Byung-hun, the Front Man, played which G.I. Joe character in Hollywood?

Lee Byung-hun played the ninja Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), and the T-1000 in Terminator Genisys (2015).

What colour does Gi-hun dye his hair at the end of season one?

Gi-hun dyes his hair red before heading to the airport; Hwang said he picked a colour Gi-hun would never have chosen himself, to show how far the games had changed him.

Which luxury house named HoYeon Jung its global ambassador weeks after the premiere?

Her Instagram following went from about 400,000 to over 13 million in three weeks; she had been a Louis Vuitton exclusive on the runway back in 2016.