Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk reveals “refreshing” changes the cast brought to their characters

While the unique story of Squid Game undoubtedly contributed a giant share towards its success, its potential to be a winning bet also hinged on whether the cast chosen to carry out its plot did it with a finesse that made it memorable. Thankfully, that's exactly what happened and in fact, the cast significantly redefined their respective characters to make them more intriguing and unique.

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Squid Game creator was impressed with the how actors improvised their characters

For Hwang Dong-hyuk creating the project was a dream he had been harboring for more than a decade ever since he first conceptualized the idea back in 2008. So, apart from knowing what a particular character should look like on paper, he had an image of how they will behave and be like on-screen.

But in a chat with The Playlist, he revealed how surprised and impressed he was with how the cast altered their characters, especially Lee Jung-jae whose “interpretation” of his character, Gi-hun, was very different from how Dong-hyuk had envisioned him.

“From the very first episode, he brought to the character a lot more ups and downs to his emotions. So the character he portrayed, in terms of the emotional expression, had higher highs and lower lows than what I had in mind, and I really liked that, it brought a sense of purity, as well as a liveliness to the character Gi-hun.”

Jung-jae wasn’t the only one who injected a certain freshness into his character in Squid Game as Dong-hyuk also mentioned cast members HoYeon Jung as the badass Sae-byeok and O Yeong-su, who was seen as the elderly Il-nam.

“I mean, Hoyeon, Sae-byeok, was also different from what I had expected, she brought a much colder and edgier expression to all of her facial expressions, as well as her eyes. And Yeong-su, who played Il-nam, had this character figured out in a way where this character spoke very slowly, much slower than what I had ever expected, and he would have these short pauses in between his lines.”

He further added:

“And it was just a pleasant surprise, it was so refreshing. In Korea, there was even a trend of people on social media imitating the way Il-nam spoke, that was how impactful it was.”

It remains to be confirmed whether any of the other characters, apart from Jung-jae’s Gi-hun, will be returning to Season 2 of Squid Game or not. Gi-hun, who emerged as the winner of the game in Season 1, will be seen hunting down the creators of the deadly games and hopefully erase the very roots of the competition that had claimed many innocent lives over the years.