50 Facts You Don’t Know About Netflix’s New Hit “Squid Game”

“Squid Game” is a popular new South Korean series that delves into the question, “how far would people go to solve their financial crisis?” To that end, a group of people who are down on their luck are offered an opportunity to participate in a series of deadly games.

To survive, they’re forced to use their wits, keep their cool, and when necessary, betray other contestants.

Along the way, alliances are formed and enemies are made, but in the end, only one can come out on top and receive $38 million to put an end to their financial woes. But no matter how many times you’ve seen the series, there are some fun facts about “Squid Game” that you may not know about.

Studios Turned “Squid Game” Down

“Squid Game” was the first series in which producer Hwang Dong-hyuk worked with an international entertainment company like Netflix. Dong-hyuk had actually been working on the script since 2008.

At the time, he had a family and was extremely broke and in debt just like the contestants on the show.

He incorporated his personal experiences into the script and finished it in 2009. But he had a tough time getting people to invest in his project and several studios rejected him because they felt his project was very violent. Eventually, Netflix caught wind of the project and acquired it.

The Director Lost 6 Teeth from Stress

Director Dong-hyuk reportedly lost 6 of his teeth while writing the script because he was extremely stressed over his deteriorating financial status. The first two episodes alone took six months to finish and it came with some serious consequences.

“On my left side, I still don’t have two molars. I need to get implants but haven’t had the time,” he explained. But with the show’s success, he should have more than enough money to get a whole new set of teeth if he wants.

It Almost Became a Movie

Dong-hyuk originally wrote “Squid Game” to be a film, but felt that it was nearly impossible to cram all of his ideas and the games into two hours.

So it was changed into a series to allow him and his writing team to come up with new characters and flesh out the story so that none of his original ideas would end up on the cutting room floor.

And in the end, it paid off and the series received 9 episodes ranging from 32 minutes to 63 minutes long to tell the whole story.

The Phone Number is Real

In the first episode, the players receive a business card from a mysterious man who invites them to complete in the “Squid Game.” In addition to the company logo, the card also features a phone number, which happens to be real.

This created a problem as thousands of real people started calling the number asking to participate in the game and the owner of the phone number couldn’t simply change their number because they needed it for work related purposes.

So, Netflix came up with a solution by editing out the phone number that appears in several key scenes.