A franchise as big as Squid Games has to have a huge turnover. The series made about $900 million for Netflix when it was released in 2021. However, it is quite peculiar when the creator of the fan favorite series comes out and says that he didn’t get much of a cut. He even said that the primary motivation for making season 2 was money.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the survival series, mentioned in an earlier interview that half a dozen of his teeth fell off when filming the first season. The earnings didn’t really make up for the stress he took, as he only received the price for his intellectual property from Netflix. The series was not his property anymore.
Overall, it explains why Hwang Dong-hyuk said that the primary motivation for making the second season was money. He mentions how this was supposed to make up for the lack of earnings from the first season.
“I’m not that rich. But I do have enough. I have enough to put food on the table. And it’s not like Netflix paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.” Says Dong-hyuk.
The recent “Reality Show,” Squid Games, made by Mr. Beast, was also earning a lot; however, this too was not extended to the creator of the original series.