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| Image Credit: Netflix |
It has become a global case.
Squid Game has unhinged all kinds of records since it came out on Netflix in September 2021. It has become a real popular phenomenon around the world. Fans can rest easily because the second season is in the works. While waiting, however, let’s delve into the folds of the first and discover ten little-known curiosities.
1. Squid Game wasn’t exactly cheap
Contrary to what one might expect for the first season of a foreign series, Netflix didn’t want to spare any expense for Squid Game. The budget was over $ 20 million (about 2.5 million per episode). The investment it generated, however, was equally mind-boggling: it even seems that the platform has earned a whopping 900 million dollars.
2. Pure adrenaline
One of the most adrenaline-pumping moments of Squid Game is undoubtedly crossing the glass bridge. The production revealed that the bridge was truly made of glass in order to push the actors and actresses into a more spontaneous reaction. Of course, if they fell they would not have plunged into a deadly cliff as in the series.
3. What a beautiful name
Several times throughout the first season of Squid Game we hear a character claim that Sae-Byeok (# 067, played by Jung Ho-Yeon) is a cool name. But why? Because in Korean Sae-Byeok means ‘dawn’.
4. Taken from a true story
Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed that his private life played a central role in the development of Squid Game. In fact, he too was plunged into debt and did not know how to get by. Until he wrote the script for the series (it was 2018) and after some denials, Netflix didn’t decide to put it into production.
5. White Vans fly
A phenomenon is also measured in the way in which it knows how to go beyond its own means of expression and influence other fields. Squid Game is a phenomenon, there is no doubt about that. Suffice it to say that the white canvas Vans worn by the characters sold like hot cakes after the debut of the television series. In fact, sales increased by 7800%, a real overwhelming success.
6. Memories from the set
It is now a custom – it is not known how much it is actually tolerated – that some props disappear and become souvenirs of actors and actresses who have starred in a certain film or in a certain series. Squid Game was no exception. In particular, Anupam Tripathi (number 199) decided to take home the green jumpsuit he wore in the series as a souvenir for his work.
7. An unattainable record
Not even the phenomenon Stranger Things 4 managed to break the Squid Game record, which recorded 1.7 billion hours of views in the first 28 days of release. Stranger Things 4 stopped at 1.4 billion hours.
8. Squid Game becomes reality
The success of a phenomenon, we said, is also measured by its derivations. Squid Game is undoubtedly a phenomenon. Netflix has decided to give life to Squid Game – The Challenge, a reality show based on the games of the TV series which will involve 456 people from all over the world. The prize up for grabs will be 4.56 million dollars and if it is won, of course, whoever makes it to the end of the games. Whoever loses – it is right to specify – will not be killed, but simply eliminated from the game.
9. Significant numbers
There are numbers in television series that are not made up. In particular, the telephone number that can be read on the organization’s business card and the current account into which the prize is paid to the winner. These are two really existing numbers: the first owned by a lady who reported exhausted the thousands of phone calls received; the second from one of the producers who (reluctantly) had to block the account after a few years ago they started paying 456 won.
10. Squid Game was supposed to be a movie
The creator himself revealed it: originally Squid Game was supposed to be a movie. And that’s not surprising, given Hwang’s film background who has written and directed some blockbuster films in Korea.