IN CONVERSATION WITH HWANG DONG-HYUK

interviewer TIMOTEJ LETONJA
questions and words NATALIE GAL

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the acclaimed South Korean writer and director, is the mind behind the genre-defining global phenomenon Squid Game. Known for blending sharp social commentary with gripping storytelling, Hwang has emerged as one of the most influential creatives in contemporary television. In our conversation, Hwang opened up about his creative process, the nuanced relationship between a director and his cast, how trust and vulnerability shape performance, and how he navigates the massive global response to his work. He spoke candidly about the cultural specificity of Squid Game, and how, paradoxically, its local themes made it universally relatable.

What surprised you most about the global reaction to the Squid Game?

Not any particular reaction, but just the sheer fact that it was loved and seen by so many people around the world. I never expected this huge of a success, I never even dreamt it.

As a director, how do you cultivate and preserve trust and creativity among your cast and crew, especially on emotionally intense sets?

I think, I don't know if I would approach it as just director, but because I am also the writer as well, I always try to pour the most into the script because I know that as actors, you know, it is fundamentally they respond to how their character is written in the script. I think the best way to communicate with the cast is through the dialogue and through the descriptions that are written in the script. I believe that if I put in my best work in the script, the actors will find their own way.

And as director, in the filming process, sometimes as I watch the cast create and bring to life their characters, sometimes I will make new discoveries about the character and if I do so, I will go back and rewrite that into the script and so slightly adjust the character and the script and the dialogue too. I think in Squid Game, that was something that I did quite often and so I would say that's probably one of the more differentiating factors of how I worked in creating the, bringing the characters to life this time.

What is your favourite part of working with actors, and how do you help them bring out the emotions or performances you envision for a scene?

For me, I don't think that directors have some kind of magic where you bring out something from an actor. I'm someone who believes that 50%, if not more, of a director's job lies in casting. And I think that if you cast the right actor in the right role, then it reduces a lot of the work that I have to do as a director on set. If you have the best actor for the best role, I think that then it's up to them to bring the character to life.

The use of childhood games in Squid Game is undoubtedly nostalgic and touching to all of us, no matter the cultural background. How did you decide which games to include?

From the beginning, when I first conceived of the idea, I had two games that I knew I wanted to include and those two were Red Light, Green Light and then the last game, which is Squid Game. I knew that I wanted Red Light, Green Light to be round one and then Squid Game to be the last game. I picked the first one because I thought that it would be very powerful to have a scene where you had four to five hundred people all playing the games together, you know, walking and then stopping and then repeating that and then one person's mistake leading to almost a massacre of half of the people playing the game.

And I wanted Squid Game to be the last round because growing up and playing these games, among these, a lot of the games that we used to play as kids in the alleyway, Squid Game was actually the most physically violent of them, so I thought it would be interesting to have that as the last round. And then as for the other games, you know, among the many different children's games that I wanted to put in there, I thought about which ones would be the most visually frightening.

What was your personal highlight of filming all these three seasons?

I think that it would have to be when I was filming the last game of season three. It was the most memorable moment. I think because in the process of filming, I realised that that game really encapsulates the essence of squid game. And I thought it really resembled the current world we live in, where it's so brutal and greedy. So yes, I think that's the one that comes to mind.

When you initially wrote the script for the show, did you anticipate it would reach such a wide audience?

Of course, working with a platform like Netflix and knowing their global reach, I did have a goal for it to be shown to as many people as possible. And you do hope for success, but never to this extent. You can dream of achieving a certain level of success through what you create, but never to the degree where it became Netflix's biggest show ever. And to see so many global fans respond to it with so much love, I never dared to dream of that.

Korean stories are now reaching global audiences like never before, it’s so exciting to see this beautiful culture getting the recognition it deserves. In your view, what is it about Korean storytelling that speaks so universally to people around the world?

I think the Korean society is just a very dynamic one. If you think about the history of Korea, we rose from the ashes of war that took place in the early 1950s, and now it's 2025, and we have become one of the top 10 economies globally. And so that's incredible if you think about it.

And that just goes to show how much the Korean people went through in about seven decades. And in that history, the amount of experiences and events and stories that the Korean people went through, I think all of that has been accumulated as these unique stories for the creators in Korea to tell. We have an expression in Korea that referred to all different types of human emotions that can possibly be felt.

And I think that Korean content, you can feel all of those range of human emotions in a single project. It's all there. And I think that's probably what separates Korean content from that of others, and probably the power of Korean storytelling.

What do you hope people remember most about your work? What is the legacy you hope to leave behind?

Well, I can only hope that Squid Game won't be a show that's easily and quickly forgotten, but a show that people will remember for a long time. I hope that people think of Squid Game as a show being extremely entertaining and unique, but at the same time, a show that gives you food for thought and also topics of discussion. And I hope that, you know, as we live our lives, when we face certain issues and problems in life and in society, I hope people will think of Squid Game, and maybe it'll allow them to have a conversation about those issues.

After such a success story of these three beautiful seasons, is there any other project you're already thinking of writing or creating after?

For my next project, I am planning a feature film. The title is KO Club. It's a dystopian story, and it explores the conflict between generations.