SINCE taking the world by storm in September last year, it’s difficult to imagine the South Korean mystery-thriller series Squid Game being shown on anywhere other than a streaming platform like Netflix.
However, series creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk recently revealed that before the streaming giant picked up Squid Game, he actually considered adapting his story into a webtoon series.
At that point, Hwang had been working on the story for over a decade, and was still figuring out how to find an audience for it.
In an interview with entertainment blog The Playlist, Hwang explained: “What I was actually thinking at the time was looking into creating Squid Game into a webtoon series, and I thought maybe we’ll do a webtoon first, and if the people like it, we can then move it into a live-action [production].”
He added: “At the time, Netflix was just beginning its business in Korea, and it was a time when global [streaming] services were really becoming very popular. And I thought if we were to look at just the Korean market, there would be a lot of limitations, but maybe [we could] showcase this story to a global audience, that could be a good bet, and I thought it could also lead to greater opportunities.”
Luckily for Hwang, his bet paid off, and Squid Game turned its cast into international stars. One of them, Park Hae-soo (who played the villainous Sang-woo), will next be starring in the Korean remake of another hit Netflix series, Money Heist. The Korean adaptation premieres on June 24.
