'Squid Game' Director Opens Up About Casting Oh Dal-soo Amid Controversy
Jan 05, 2025
|
Director Hwang Dong-hyuk met with Sports Chosun at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 2nd to interview Netflix's original series 'Squid Game 2' (played by Hwang Dong-hyuk, directed) and mentioned the casting of Oh Dal-soo, who disappeared for a long time due to the Me Too controversy.
Director Hwang said, `I'm not even a judge, and it's hard to judge, but actor Oh Dal-soo finished things without prosecution. Although Oh Dal-su was at the center of the Me Too movement, he did not know what details he had done wrong and was not in a position to judge the gravity of the incident, but nothing was revealed, and the facts were coming from other works. It appeared in 'Veteran 2', and how long have you been active, so should writing this person be criticized like this? Is this person still not forgiven like this. I think that's what I thought."
Then "Seung-hyun (top) and Oh Dal-soo (top) also appeared, so I think it created synergy." If only Oh Dal-soo came out, I wonder if he would say this. There is no standard, so I thought I could use it to make a problem and move on to it, but I watched it with mixed and complicated feelings whenever there was a controversy over casting, and I think it's a matter for you to judge. In my opinion, I decided that it would be okay to use it.'
Director Hwang said "In fact, Oh Dal-su was an actor I really liked acting so much that I wanted to try it with him once. I didn't have a chance, but I did it because I thought it suited me well for this role, and I wasn't trying to help him return. He explained, "I cast the character in consideration of its suitability, but it didn't mean anything else."
'Squid Game 2' is a story about a fierce battle between Ki-hoon'(Lee Jung-jae) who returns to play after vowing revenge, and 'Frontman'(Lee Byung-hun) who greets him, and a real game that begins again. Since its release on December 26, it has recorded 68,000,000 viewers (view time divided by the total running time of the work) in four days, topping the global TOP 10. In addition, the first week alone ranked seventh in Netflix's all-time most popular series (non-English), setting a record for the highest number of viewers in the public week. This is a record that far exceeds the 50.1 million viewers in the first week of 'Wendday'. Season 1 is also ranked third in the Global Top 10 Series (non-English), drawing enthusiastic responses from viewers around the world.
lunamoon@sportschosun.com
