A speaker plays the eerily familiar recorder notes on a loop as I step onto the set, wearing mandatory protective grey socks over my trainers. I inhale the overwhelming aroma of fresh paint(bright pink, yellow, and blue: childlike colors because, well, that’s the point)as I take in the scene around me. It's a cold-but-not-too-cold mid-December morning and I'm fresh off the bullet train from Seoul, arriving two hours south in the Chungcheong Province of South Korea, otherwise known as the shrouded-in-secrecy filming location of Squid Game season two.
In autumn 2021, a surprise hit arrived on Netflix. There had been little fanfare in the lead-up to the arrival of the Korean-language drama, which followed desperate adults playing a series of childhood games for a life-changing amount of money. The twist? Each contestant is brutally murdered if (more like when) they fail to complete a game until there's just one winner.
The show ranked number one in 94 countries after 142 million households spent more than 1.65 billion hours watching it in the first month of its release. Unsurprisingly, a second season was commissioned, as well as a spin-off reality series (don't worry, there was no death in that one). There were Golden Globe nominations, a Gotham Award, and a record-breaking Emmy win for creator, writer, and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, the first Asian and native Korean winner in the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series category.
For Hwang, it wasn't the awards or viewing figures that indicated the global success of his show, "It was when the actors went on The Tonight Show. I realized, 'Wow, this has gone mainstream in the U.S.' And on Saturday Night Live, they did a parody of Squid Game," he says, sitting across from me.
We've moved to the infamous dormitory set, which feels much bigger in person, and tiled walls surround the columns of four-story bunk beds. "There were a lot more beds here, but we are six months into production, so a lot of people have already died," executive producer Kim Ji-yeon explains during the tour. There's a new feature, too: large X and O symbols illuminated on the floor with LED lighting, giving players the option to leave or stay in the game following each round. "Making a choice is a very critical theme of season two," adds Kim.
Did Hwang feel pressure when it came to developing a follow-up? "It would be a lie to say no," he tells me. Squid Game famously took him more than a decade to make, whereas there has been much less time for this installment. "In season one, all the characters died, so I have had to come up with a new character line-up and new games as well. So, yes, it [has been] more difficult.'"
The narrative will continue to follow the main character Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who viewers will remember did not board the flight in the season one finale. "I personally like season two's story better," Hwang teases. "It's a continuation of the journey of Gi-hun." Whatever new route his journey takes, we'll be seated.
Squid Game Season 2 lands on Netflix 26th December.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com/uk. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.
