Squid Game Creator Says He Lost '8 or 9' Teeth from 'Stress' of First Season but Season 2 Is Even More Taxing

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk knows just how bad stress can be.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, Dong-hyuk, 53, revealed in an interview with the BBC that he lost several teeth while filming the first season of the hit Netflix show — which follows people in debt as they play deadly games to win a monetary prize — all due to the strain of shooting it.

When asked about reports that he lost half a dozen teeth filming, Dong-hyuk corrected the outlet saying, “It was eight or nine.” 

Despite the hit to his health, he added that he decided to come back to film a second season due to “money,” noting that he “didn’t make much” from the first season despite it being “a huge global success.”

Dong-hyuk told the outlet that he had received his payment upfront before the release of the series, so he wasn’t able to fully cash in on the approximately $800 million it made for Netflix. 

“Doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too,” he told BBC, adding, “And I didn’t fully finish the story.”

Despite this, Dong-hyuk said the pressure is on to get the story right — especially due to the state of the world now compared to how it was three years ago. 

“The stress I feel now is much greater,” he told the BBC. “New lines are being drawn. We’re in an era of us vs them. Who’s right and who’s wrong?”

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The show's creator teased how that would also play out in season 2, with characters including Lee Jung-jae returning "more desperate and determined” than ever to bring down the masked people behind the games, he told the BBC.

Dong-hyuk first announced that the second series would be coming in 2022, saying in a statement, "It took 12 years to bring the first season of Squid Game to life last year. But it took 12 days for Squid Game to become the most popular Netflix series ever. As the writer, director and producer of Squid Game, a huge shout-out to fans around the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show."

Squid Game is Netflix's most-watched series in 94 countries, bringing in over 142 million member households and 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first four weeks. Dong-hyuk teased the plot of season 2 in June 2022.

"There are some other stories in the series that have not been addressed. For example, the story of the police officer and the story of his brother, The Front Man," he told The Hollywood Reporter in October 2021.

"So if I end up creating season 2, I'd like to explore that storyline — what is going on between those two brothers? And then I could also go into the story of that recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode."

The director added, "And, of course, we could go with Gi-hun's story as he turns back, and explore more about how he's going to navigate through his reckoning with the people who are designing the games."

Squid Game season 2 is set to be released on Netflix on Dec. 26, 2024.