It has been revealed that the hugely popular new Netflix drama, Squid Game, was rejected by multiple studios for ten years before it was picked up by the streaming giant.
The Squid Game script was rejected for ten years before Netflix gave it the go-ahead, with the Korean drama being refused by multiple local studios within South Korea. Considering that the show is now on track to become Netflix's most successful program ever, this news comes with a strong dose of irony.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the show's creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, actually started work on the show an entire decade ago. At the time, studios in South Korea rejected the show on the grounds that the concept was "too grotesque".
If you think about it, that's a little weird, right? It was only in 2012 that The Hunger Games became all the rage, and those films have a very similar concept. Perhaps this could come down to cultural differences, but in any case, they were certainly wrong to reject the show.
According to the report, Hwang Dong-hyuk was living with his mother when he first came up with the concept. Indeed, the Squid Game creator was reportedly forced at the time to "sell his $675 laptop for cash".
Seeing as that the show is now number one on Netflix, with more than 18 million views since it debuted on September 17, its success is in stark contrast to its conception. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Hwang theorizes that part of the show's success has to do with the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic.
The world has changed... All of these points made the story very realistic for people compared to a decade ago.
A café worker interviewed for the same story said that perhaps "the popularity of K-pop made more people interested in Korean content." Either way, it is extraordinary to think that Netflix's most popular show was rejected for so long.
So, to summarize, Squid Game's script was rejected for ten years before it came to Netflix and became an international super-hit. Yep, that's a story for the ages.
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