At the recently-held Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, the hit Korean show became the first non-English-language series to be nominated for best drama. However, it lost the award to the HBO series Succession, which scored 25 Emmy nominations and won four of them including the Best Drama Series. Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk said that he was a little disappointed when he realised they didn’t win the award. Also Read| Leonardo DiCaprio to be part of Squid Game? Here’s what show’s director said
Squid Game actor Lee Jung-Jae made history at the award show by becoming the first Asian actor to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Lee You-mi also became the first Korean female actor to win the award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her appearance in the show. Squid Game also won three other awards– Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode, Outstanding Stunt Performance, and Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More). Hwang Dong-hyuk also won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series. However, the director wanted to particularly win the trophy for best drama series, and for a split second, he thought they had scored it as well.
As per Reuters, he said during a joint news conference in Seoul with the Squid Game crew and cast, “Of course what I wanted the most was best drama series. Because above all else, it comes at the end of the ceremony where everyone in the team goes onto the stage, so I was hoping for such a moment. When I heard an ‘S’ sound when they announced it, I thought it was ‘squid’ but then it turned out to be ‘succession,’ so I remember being a little disappointed.”
The director is now preparing to begin work on the second season of Squid Game, which will be shot next year and released in 2024. He shared that one of the biggest troubles he is facing in this season is that he killed many popular characters in the first season itself.
He admitted, “I want to revive Ji-young, but her best friend Sae-byeok also died, so I’m thinking what to do. So many characters died, especially beloved ones died. I’m sorry I killed them so easily; I didn’t know this was coming.”
Squid Game, a survival drama, revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children’s games for the chance to win a huge cash prize. It premiered on Netflix in September last year to critical acclaim and international attention.