Development Season 1 Around 2008,
Hwang Dong-hyuk tried unsuccessfully to get investment for a different movie script that he had written, and he, his mother, and his grandmother had to take out loans to stay afloat, but still struggled amid the
debt crisis within the country. He spent his free time in a
manhwabang (South Korean comic cafe) reading Japanese survival
manga such as
Battle Royale,
Liar Game and
Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji. Hwang feared the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre" at the time. Hwang put this script aside and over the next ten years successfully completed three other films. including the
crime drama film
Silenced (2011) and the
historical drama film
The Fortress (2017). In 2018,
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, stated that they were looking for more successes from overseas productions: "The exciting thing for me would be if the next
Stranger Things came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood." Netflix had opened up a division in Asia in 2018, and while they were still operating out of temporary leased office space in Seoul, Hwang brought his script to their attention. Kim Minyoung, one of Netflix's content officers for the Asian regions, recognized Hwang's talent from
The Fortress and his other films, and upon seeing his script for
Squid Game, knew they needed it for the service. Kim said "[W]e were looking for shows that were different from what's traditionally 'made it,' and Squid Game was exactly it". In September 2019 Netflix formally announced that they would produce Hwang's work as an original series. At the time that Hwang wrote the series, his goal was to have the series reach the most-watched show in Netflix in the United States for at least one day. Hwang wanted to produce another film first, as well as secure a contract with Netflix to release additional films he may create alongside further
Squid Game seasons, so as to avoid becoming known only for
Squid Game. Netflix stated in response to Hwang's comments that they had not yet officially greenlit a second season, but were in discussions with Hwang towards one. During an earnings call in January 2022, Netflix's Sarandos said when asked about a second season "Absolutely...the
Squid Game universe has just begun." Hwang said in April 2022 that he presently was working on
Killing Old People Club, an adaption of a work called "Pape Satan Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society" by
Umberto Eco (; "The way to pretend to understand the crazy world"), and anticipated that the second season of
Squid Game would be completed and broadcast by 2024. Netflix confirmed that the second season was greenlit in June 2022. It was released on December 26, 2024. On the day the second season was released, Hwang confirmed that the series would return for a third and final season in 2025. The season was released on June 27, 2025.
Writing Season 1 Hwang described the work as "a story about losers". The two main characters Gi-hun and Sang-woo were based on Hwang's own personal experiences and represented "two sides" of himself; Gi-hun shared the same aspects of being raised by an economically disadvantaged single mother in the
Ssangmun district of Seoul, while Sang-woo reflected on Hwang having attended
Seoul National University with high expectations from his family and neighborhood. Further, Gi-hun's background was inspired by the organizers of the
SsangYong Motor labor strike of 2009 against mass layoffs. '', a Korean sugar candy treat, based on the shapes used in the second game of the show. Within the show, players had to extract the inner shapes intact. Hwang based the narrative on
Korean games of his childhood to show the irony of a childhood game where competition was not important becoming an extreme competition with people's lives at stake. The central game he selected, the
squid game, was a popular Korean children's game from the 1970s and 1980s. Hwang recalled the squid game as "the most physically aggressive childhood game I played in neighborhood alleys as a kid, which is why I also loved it the most", and because of this "it's the most symbolic game that reflects today's competitive society, so I picked it out as the show's title". The game
Red Light, Green Light was selected because of its potential to make a lot of losers in one go. Regarding the selection, Hwang said, "The game was selected because the scene filled with so many people randomly moving and stopping could be viewed as a ridiculous but a sad group dance." Licking the candy to free the shape was something that Hwang said that he had done as a child and brought it into the script. Hwang had considered other Korean children's games such as
Gonggi,
Dong, Dong, Dongdaemun, and
Why did you come to my house? (우리 집에 왜 왔니?, a Korean variant of the Hana Ichi Monme). As such, Hwang was initially unsure about a sequel after completing these episodes,
Seasons 2 and 3 Due to the stress of writing and producing the first series of nine episodes himself, Hwang initially had no immediate plans to write a second season to
Squid Game. He did not have well-developed plans for a follow-up story and said that if he were to write one, he would likely need a staff of writers and directors to help him. He added he also wanted to explore the relationship between the cryptic Front Man and his policeman brother Hwang Jun-ho, as well as the background of the recruiter character (portrayed by
Gong Yoo). Hwang originally envisioned the second and third seasons as one, but split them up because he had too many episodes for one season. According to Hwang, after the end of the second season, Gi-hun would be a changed man "at a very critical crossroads". The season will also reveal how Hwang In-ho became the Front Man. Cheol-su, Young-hee's giant robot doll boyfriend, was introduced at the end of the second season and appeared in the third season alongside a new game.
Casting Season 1 Hwang said he chose to cast
Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun as to "destroy his charismatic image portrayed in his previous roles".
HoYeon Jung was requested by her new management company to send a video to audition for the series while she was finishing a shoot in Mexico and preparing for New York Fashion Week. Although this was her first audition as an actor and her expectations were low, Hwang said, "The moment I saw her audition tape from New York, I immediately thought to myself, 'this is the girl we want.' My first impression of her was that she is wild and free like an untamed horse". On casting
Anupam Tripathi as Ali Abdul, Hwang said, "It was hard to find good foreign actors in Korea." He chose Anupam Tripathi because of his emotional acting capabilities and fluency in Korean. Both
Gong Yoo and
Lee Byung Hun had worked with Hwang during his previous films,
Silenced and
The Fortress respectively, and Hwang had asked both to appear in small roles within
Squid Game. The VIPs were selected from non-Korean actors living in Asia; in the case of
Geoffrey Giuliano, who played the VIP that interacted with Jun-ho, his prior role from
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula led to his casting for
Squid Game. Casting for the series was confirmed on June 17, 2020.
Season 2 In April 2022, Hwang confirmed that the characters of Gi-hun and the Front Man will return for the second season. During Netflix's
Tudum: A Global Fan Event in June 2023, Lee Jung-jae was confirmed to reprise his role alongside Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo and Wi Ha-joon. On June 29, Netflix released more info on the new season's cast, which includes
Kang Ha-neul,
Park Sung-hoon,
Yim Si-wan,
Yang Dong-geun,
Park Gyu-young,
Lee Jin-wook,
Won Ji-an,
Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-shim,
Lee David, and Roh Jae-won.
Costume, set design, and filming Season 1 Production and filming of the series ran from June to October 2020, including a mandatory month-long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. City scenes were filmed in
Daejeon, while the island set pieces were filmed on Seongapdo located in
Ongjin. '' played heavily in the graphic design of the show. As Netflix was targeting the work for a global audience, the visuals were emphasized and some of the rules of the children's games were simplified to avoid potential issues with the language barrier. The complex network of tunnels between the arena, the dorm, and the administrative office was inspired by ant colonies. The mint green and pink color theme throughout the show were a common theme from South Korean schools in the 1970s and 1980s. Green-suited characters develop associations of fear with pink through its use in guard outfits and the stairway room. The dinner scene that took place in the eighth episode was inspired by the art installation
The Dinner Party by
Judy Chicago. Throughout the series, the trio of circle, triangle, and square shapes appear frequently on the cards given to recruit players, on the guards' masks, and in the show's
title card in most language adaptations. These are shapes associated with the playing field for the children's game of
Squid (
ojingeo). They are also used to represent the hierarchy of the guards within the complex. Following from the comparison with an
ant colony, the guards with circles are considered the workers, triangles as the soldiers, and squares as the managers (see also:
Korean honorifics).
Seasons 2 and 3 Principal photography for the second season was scheduled to start in July 2023 and was expected to last for "at least 10 months". On July 10, staff members of the production faced a controversy involving allegations of mistreatment towards citizens during filming at
Incheon Airport. The production company issued an official apology on the matter. Filming was reportedly underway in August 2023. Filming took place simultaneously with the third season and
wrapped in June 2024. The second season's new voting system, differing significantly from the first season, allows players to vote after every game whether to continue the competition or leave with a share of the accumulated prize money. In an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter, Hwang explained that the new red-and-blue voting system was designed to emphasize the idea of forced division and the pressure to take sides. The redesigned dormitory set includes large red and blue symbols and lines that physically split the room.
Music composed the score for the series.
Jung Jae-il, who previously composed the soundtrack for
Parasite, composed and directed
Squid Game score. To prevent it from becoming boring, he asked the help of composers Park Min-ju, and Kim Sung-soo, a music director for musicals who uses the stage name "23" as a composer. Two classical music pieces are also used throughout the show as part of the players' routine: the third movement of
Joseph Haydn's "
Trumpet Concerto" is used to wake the players, and
Johann Strauss II's "
The Blue Danube" is used to indicate the start of a new game. For the song "Way Back Then" that accompanies children playing Squid Game, Jung wanted to use instruments that he practiced in elementary school, such as recorders and castanets. The song "Round VI" was played by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. The soundtrack was released on September 17, 2021. Jung returned to
score the second season, with the soundtrack album being released on December 27, 2024, through
Netflix Music. Jung confirmed his involvement in 2023, telling the
BBC the second season would retain some elements from the score to the first season but have a "more bizarre and unique sound". The second season also features the aria "
Nessun dorma" from
Giacomo Puccini's
Turandot and "
Time to Say Goodbye" by
Sarah Brightman and
Andrea Bocelli. ==Release==