15 Freakishly Odd Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Squid Game

Squid Game (Korean; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a Netflix original South Korean survival drama series developed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. Lee Jung-Jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-Joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-Su, Heo Sung-Tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung are among the cast members.

The show centers on a competition in which 456 contestants, all of whom are deeply in debt, risk their lives by playing a series of lethal children's games in the hopes of winning a reward worth $45.6 billion (US$38 million, €33 million, or GB£29 million as of a broadcast). The series' title is based on a Korean children's game of the same name. Hwang had devised the idea based on his own early economic problems, as well as South Korea's class gap and capitalism. Despite the fact that he first wrote it in 2009, he was unable to find a production firm willing to fund the project until Netflix expressed interest in it in 2019 as part of their effort to broaden their international programming offerings.

If you actually want to see Squid Game’s terrifying robot doll up close -- you can (as long as you don’t mind traveling to Korea). Here’s the full story, plus 14 others: