Big TakeThe gory, dystopian South Korean thriller Squid Game is the most popular series Netflix has ever released. This week, it drops season two — in the midst of the company’s efforts to grow the show beyond the screen.
On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host Rebecca Choong Wilkins talks to Bloomberg’s Sohee Kim and Lucas Shaw about the new season, the story of how the show was nearly never made and all the ways Netflix is trying to expand Squid Game into a global franchise — from reality TV and video games to in-person fan experiences.
Read more: ‘Squid Game’ Returns in Test of Netflix Global Marketing Muscle
Further listening: K-Pop’s Big Bet on Becoming Less Korean
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
If that sound immediately filled you with panic and dread, you're likely one of the many, many fans of Squid Game, the gory, dystopian South Korean TV series which is coming back for a second season this week. Game is Wrong, Welcome back to the game. Indeed, the first season of Squid Game generated and estimated nine hundred million dollars in value for Netflix, and the show was a hit around the globe.
Season one of Squid Game was the most popular season of television Netflix has ever released.
That's Lucas Shaw, a Bloomberg editor covering media and entertainment.
No show since then has eclipsed it.
To promote the show, Netflix is running one of the largest promotion campaigns in the company's history in South Korea and around the world. Earlier this month, in Paris, hundreds of people descended on the Chanzo Lise to compete for tickets to watch the season two premiere. You can hear how much one of the team captains, a YouTuber named inox Tag, is trying to pump up the crowd in this video posted on his channel.
The Life Exception. Having in New.
York, Netflix set up an escape proom experience where excited fans are testing out their own survival instincts and then posting videos on YouTube, and in Spain and Portugal, fans can eat a special Squid Game themed KFC meal.
Those pink sub guards could be found everywhere from Bondai Beach to Shanzo Luzi and the real sized Youngi doll flowing on the river of bankog so He.
Kim is Bloomberg's Asia entertainment reporter based in Seoul.
I've never seen any kind of global marketing on a single drama series bigger than this.
All these live events, experiences and collaborations with other brands are part of a bigger strategy for Netflix to extend the show's popularity by growing it beyond the screens.
Netflix wants to turn this into something that wasn't just a one off, you know, sensation in twenty twenty one, and be a show that can last throughout the decade.
Lucas and So He got to visit the set where they filmed season two of Squid Game. They talked to the show's director Huangdong Huk about his journey and how season two almost never even got made. Welcome to the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Rebecca Chung Willkins. Every week we take you inside some of the world's biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons, and businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today on the show Netflix's Big bet on expanding squid Game into a global franchise. Squid Game dropped in September twenty twenty one at the height of the pandemic, and almost overnight, the nine episode series blew up into a global phenomenon. So he for people who haven't watched Squid Game, what is a story about?
Squid Game is a survival thriller story around his Honky Hun, who is a gambling addict and is really broke. He gets invited to this mysterious death or in life competition on a heathen island in South Korea where he's invited to play in these children games. The ultimate winner over hundreds of other competitors receives a large cash price and I will live it at that So to not spoil.
It, well, spoiler a lot. The premise of this show is that if you win these playground games, you get rich, really rich, but if you lose, you get killed, So it does get quite violent. So the people in the show take these great risks in pursuit of money. What does director Huang hope that people will take away from the show?
I talked to the director and he told us that the story is really about the unlimited competition of capitalist society and how unequal that is. The show explores themes of the gap between the reach and the poor and how far people will go for money?
Sure, and what did director Huang tell you about what inspired him to write this kind of story?
So it was during the global financial prices in two thousand and eight. The financial crisis hit the content market in South Korea as well, and director Juang went almost broke. He had less than the ten dollars in his bank account, nothing to do but reading comic books, being hopeless and resentful against the society, and the only way out from this desperate reality emerged in his imagination, like questioning himself, what if there's a survival game that could turn his life upside down and make him a millionaire? And what kinds of games he would be winning and make him the finest survival So the script from the Lifeboard Death situation has become the Squeak Game.
But once he had the story down, so he says, Huang had a hard time selling the script to Korean production houses and broadcasting stations. He says they thought it was too violent, confusing, and expensive to make, so to work on something else, directing films and waiting for the right buyer for Squid Game to come around, And a decade later, in twenty eighteen, he finally found someone interested in buying it. Netflix.
Netflix launched at streaming service in twenty sixteen in South Korea. The main strategy of Netflix has been focused on local stories for local audiences, so Netflix picked up the idea of a quangscript around twenty eighteen. So yes, it was a lucky deal for Uhang as well. In foreign Netflix, Netflix bought the show and focused mainly on promoting it to a regional audience, so Netflix didn't heavily promote the show when it first came out. It was targeting Korean and some local audiences in Asia.
But then this series took the world by storm. For a time, it top Netflix's list of the most watched titles on every continent. The show won multiple Emmy Awards and was spoofed on Saturday Night Live. The ultimate signal in the US that something is broken into the culture when SNL can name check it, no explanation.
Needed, broken, damn shame, you're gonna play the schoo weird game.
It was clear the company had a hit on their hands, and naturally they wanted to keep that going, but they had a problem at the end of the first season. Huang initially had no plans for writing a second The director told so He that making season one was so intense that he lost seven or eighteenth during the process.
She didn't want to interview honestly. After first season launched, I said, no, there is no second season because you were so challenging. I lost so many teeth. It was just too tough. I never wanted to do a series again, and that's what I told him.
And yet there were financial reasons to press ahead. Netflix had paid for the first season of the show almost entirely upfront, which meant that many cast members didn't immediately share in the company's win form. And despite some one time bonuses for the team behind the show, Huang said he felt like the second season would provide the team with a better chance to get more compensation.
And I said this many times, even though season one was a mega hit and a huge global success. To be honest from the creator site, we don't receive the economic compensation right away because it's not set up like that. The revenue U kept from the box office tickets or anything like that. So we felt like we had to do the second season that will provide a more eedequal compensation. Befeitting the success of this show.
Check out as so so he Season two premiers this week. What are we expecting?
More killings, more storylines, more characters. I'm not like giving any of like secret spoilers, but it will be very interesting and there will be new games. I believe.
After the break how Netflix is capitalizing on Squid games success and can the height for the show last. Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw, who covers media and entertainment, says that the popularity of Squid Game has translated into real revenue for Netflix.
Netflix doesn't break out revenue to any specific show. However, in the weeks after the first season of the show came out, I obtained some internal documents that suggested Netflix thought that the show was worth about nine hundred million dollars to the company or would be.
And how does that nine hundred million compare to other big global Netflix hits.
We don't know, because I didn't get documents that sort of compared it to a bunch of others. I did see it relative to a few other titles, including some stand up specials, and you know, it's much much bigger than any of those. And it's pretty clear that Netflix, after the success of season one, wanted to try to build off of that and turn it into sort of a larger franchise because they thought that that would increase the value of the company.
In addition to season two, Netflix also announced that it would premiere Squid Game season three, it's final season, in twenty twenty five and more. Episodes of this series are just one way Netflix has been capitalizing on the show's success. Since the show's release, Netflix has been building out the franchise in other ways too.
They started developing a video game tied to Squid Game. They started developing a reality television show tied to the show. There's a Squid Game experience in a few cities. Vans can go play the challenges from the show. There's a ton of consumer product integrations right There's special edition tracksuits and skincare and crocs. So yeah, if you have a popular property, you want to find ways to exploit it in as many ways as possible and keep it fresh in the minds of your customer and give them different ways to interact with it, because it will make them love it more.
And Lucas says expanding on existing franchises like Squid Game is not just potentially lucrative, but necessary for Netflix's business because as the company gets bigger and bigger, it's hard to find new customers.
Well, the original Squid Game was a huge catalyst for Netflix in Asia, and so there's a strong desire for that to continue. Netflix would like to see it help attract more customers, certainly in South Korea, where there's strong national pride about the show, but also in Japan and Southeast Asia other parts of the world where it's still trying to grow a lot. It's very difficult to predict something brand new that people like, but once you have something that you know is successful, it's much safer to make more of it because you know that there's an audience for it. So Netflix wants to have those tent pole franchises that they can have in every quarter to make sure that it serves as an attraction for potential new customers.
So we've got the sequel of Factor trilogy, reality TV show, video game, merch, potential movie spin off, these sort of in person experiences. Is it fair to say it's kind of like the Harry Potter of South Korea?
You know, look, I'm reluctant to call it the Harry Potter of South Korea because a show about people basically in this competition where they all die, just doesn't lend itself naturally, you'd think to franchises or to exploitation. Harry Potter has been a cultural touchdown now for twenty five years, and it's going to continue to be for the next twenty five, fifty seventy five years. My kids are going to be reading them, my kids' kids might be reading them. I think the odds of Squid Game having that kind of longevity are pretty low. I don't think that people are going to be obsessing over Squid Game in fifty years. I could be wrong. I'd be happy to be wrong. But it feels like a show that really defines a particular decade and moment in time.
Lucas, do you have.
A prediction of how long will continue to see the show ricocheting through the Netflix universe.
The hype will continue as long as Netflix can keep more of the show going. The hits in this modern age burn bright and burn fast for the most part, right and unless you keep it going. Disney puts out new Marvel stuff every year. They try to put out new Star Wars every year. The Universal puts out new Fast and Furious every couple of years. The key to these franchises is the right balance between keeping it in the culture and zeitgeist so people are interacting with and relating to it without over exposing so that people get tired of.
This is the big take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Rebecca Cheung Wilkins. This episode was produced by Naomi Ung Young Young and Jessica Beck with help from Alex Tie. Sound design was done by Jessica. It was mixed by Alex Segura and fact checked by Eddie dwe It was edited by Caitlin Kenny, Aaron Edwards, and Felix Gillette. We'd like to give special thanks to Gi Hyung Lee. Naomi Shavin is our senior producer. Elizabeth Ponso is our Senior editor, Nicole Beamstabor is our executive producer, and Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Please follow and review The Big Take Asia wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps new listeners find the show. The Big Take will be back Thursday, and Big Take Asia will return next week. See you next time.
