Squid Game Creator Reacts To Rust Shooting Tragedy, Claims He Has “Never Seen A Real Bullet” On Korean Film Sets

Squid Game writer and director Hwang Dong-Hyuk claims he’s never seen a real bullet. This comes as a surprise considering how much firearms were used on the smash Netflix series.

Amid the fallout from the fatal shooting on the set of the Alec Baldwin Western Rust, Variety asked Hwang about the weapon-handling safety protocols taken on during the filming of Squid Game.

“We of course have a prop master, but also in Korea, we’re not really a gun-owning country, so only the police can have and own a gun,” he said. “Because of that, bullets are not really easily as distributed as they are maybe here, so there’s a very low, low possibility of any safety issues happening on set.”

He added, “In my life, I have never seen a real bullet. I have only seen them in the movies.”

Hwang and Squid Games stars Park Hae-Soo, Lee Jung-Jae and Jung Ho-Yeon were in Los Angeles over the weekend for the ACMA’s Art + Film Gala. On the following Monday, at a Q&A session, Hwang confirmed with Associated Press that season 2 of Squid Game is in the works.

Hwang has previously said he had no plans to work on Season 2 but later walked back on his comments and revealed some plotlines he’s keen to explore.

“Squid Game becoming the number one Netflix show in the United States was a dream that we had. That was a goal that we had,” he told Variety. “We did try our best to make that happen. However, I never imagined it to be an all-time biggest show and the cultural phenomenon it has become.”

In another interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hwang, 50, revealed there was an alternate ending that would have seen Lee’s character, Seong G-Hun aka Player 456, get on the plane to visit his daughter, rather than turning back to take on the secret group running the macabre games.

He said, “We actually wrestled between two different scenarios for the ending. There was one, the other alternative ending, where Gi-Hun would get on the plane and leave.

“And then there was of course the one where he would turn back and walk towards the camera. We constantly asked ourselves, is it really right for Gi-hun to make the decision to leave and go see his family, to pursue his own happiness? Is that the right way for us to really propose the question or the message that we wanted to convey through the series?”

He continued, “We came to the conclusion that the question that we wanted to propose cannot be done if he left on the plane.

“The question that we want to answer — why has the world come to what it is now? — can only be answered or can only be proposed if Gi-Hun turned back and walked towards the camera. So that’s how we ended up with that ending in the finale.”

At the time of writing, Netflix hasn't officially renewed Squid Game for season 2. If the streamer doesn’t, a lot of people will be really disappointed. Just saying.

Squid Game is now streaming on Netflix.