Why Squid Game Was Changed From A Movie

Why Squid Game Was Changed From A Movie

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk originally envisioned the hit Netflix series as a standalone movie, so why did it become a TV show instead?

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Why Squid Game Was Changed From A Movie

Netflix’s Squid Game may be one of the streaming service’s most popular offerings ever, but why was the series turned into a show when it was originally intended to be a movie? The South Korean survival thriller Squid Game has proven a massive hit for Netflix. Squid Game sees 456 contestants, all deep in debt, battle through a series of life-or-death children’s games to earn a massive cash prize.

The blackly comic Squid Game offers both brutal thrills and thoughtful satire of income inequality in South Korea and worldwide. As such, the series has become a massive success for Netflix, outstripping Bridgerton as the streaming service’s most-viewed offering ever. However, Squid Game was not always intended to be a miniseries.

Squid Game is a nine-episode limited series that takes its time letting viewers get to know the characters participating in the games as well as drip-feeding some clues to their mysterious captors. However, when creator Hwang Dong-hyuk originally wrote the script’s first draft back in 2009, Squid Game was initially set to be a standalone movie. Potential investors balked out how violent, bleak, and bizarre the storyline was, and the writer shelved Squid Game for a decade as he worked on his movie career. However, when Squid Game was eventually picked up by Netflix, the streaming service expanded the movie script into a miniseries. This choice was down to the show format fitting Squid Game in terms of its pacing, although the side benefit of countless viewers watching every episode instead of one lone film also likely resulted in better streaming performance for Netflix.

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Hwang Dong-hyuk was able to expand the story of Squid Game thanks to the series order, and as a result, the show focused more on the lives and backstories of individual players than the originally planned movie would have allowed. Without the time constraints of a movie, Squid Game could dive deep into any secrets and mysteries and make viewers care about each player, making their brutal deaths all the more hard-hitting. After the streaming service changed the project’s format from a standalone movie to a series, Hwang Dong-hyuk returned Netflix’s favor by not making another change they insisted on.

Originally, Netflix wanted to retitle Squid Game with the name “Round Six” – since this was thought to be a more accessible, less esoteric title. However, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk pushed to keep the title Squid Game, noting that its potential obscurity would only compel viewers to find out more about the enigmatic show (where the blander “Round Six” could easily put people off). Netflix acquiesced and kept the title, and the mysterious Squid Game went on to become one of their most impressive critical and commercial successes yet. Thus, a series order from Netflix reshaped Hwang Dong-hyuk’s long-shelved movie and turned Squid Game into a more immersive, large-scale series, while the creator’s tenacity allowed Hwang Dong-hyuk to keep the project he originally envisioned alive.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/squid-game-netflix-movie-show-changed-why/

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