Created by South Korean film director Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game quickly became one of Netflix’s most viewed TV shows.

To date, it has attracted an audience of 330 million and more than 2.8 billion hours.

But following the success of the first season, creators of the show had to make a change after realising they had seriously impacted one woman’s life by mistake.

The second season follows the protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, three years after he first won the Squid Game.

Gi-hun returns to participate in – and take down – the games, once again facing off against new participants.

But this time around, there’s a slight difference with one detail.

In the first season, viewers see Gi-hun receive a business card with an eight-digit number.

However, the number wasn’t actually a fake, created for the series. In fact, once the South Korean prefix of 010 was added, it became a real phone number.

Unfortunately, the woman that the number belonged to had an influx of calls from people all over the globe, ringing to check if the number was real.

“Since the airing of Squid Game, I’ve been receiving texts and calls 24 hours a day, to the point where it’s difficult to live my daily life.” Kim Gil-young from Seongju, South Korea, told Money Today at the time.

“This is a number that I’ve been using for more than 10 years, so I’m quite taken aback. There are more than 4,000 numbers that I’ve had to delete from my phone.

The number on the card was real when the prefix 010 was added (Netflix)

“I get calls out of curiosity day and night without any sense of time, to the point where my phone battery would run out in half a day.

“At first, I didn’t know what it meant, but I found out when my friends told me, ‘Your number appears in Squid Game’.”

Gil-young wasn’t able to simply change her phone number, as she used it for business, so she contacted Netflix and production company Siren Pictures to try and fix the problem.

In a statement at the time, Netflix said: “Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes with phone numbers where necessary.”

The number was changed and it was replaced with digits that could not be used as a phone number.

The first season of the well-loved show dropped on Netflix back in 2021, and it’s safe to say it completely rocked the globe.

Created by South Korean film director Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game quickly became one of Netflix’s most viewed TV shows. To date, it has attracted an audience of 330 million and more than 2.8 billion hours.

And fans of the show have had to wait a pain-staking three years for the second season, which was green lit in June 2022.

Squid Game Season 2 trailer

“WHY AM I SO SCARED TO WATCH SQUID GAME 2,” wrote one person on Twitter.

A second penned: “Squid game s2 got me holding my breathhhhhh omg.”

Dozens of others shared their intentions of binge watching the show. Someone said: “Yaaay I can finally binge Squid Game 2.”

“I’m ready to binge this it’s been too long,” echoed a different person on Facebook page Netflix Bangers.

While it’s only been on the streaming platform for a short period of time, viewers have been sharing their reviews already.

“Squid Game season 2 is 10x better than the first,” gushed someone on Twitter.

“Squid Game 2 is amazing so far,” added someone else who has begun watching it.

A third went on: “First episode of Squid Game season 2 is amazing already WOW.”

Another social media user said of the first episode: “I thought Squid Game season 2 would be whack but the first episode itself is so good.”

A lot of people were crying out for a second season following the success of the first, but its creator hadn’t initially planned on doing a follow-up.

As to why Dong-hyuk did do another season, it largely came down to money.

Hwang Dong-hyuk is the brains behind Squid Game (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Speaking to the BBC, the 53-year-old screenwriter said that he didn’t make much cash from the success of season one.

“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he explained.

“So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

While money was a contributing factor to him penning a second season, Dong-hyuk also admitted that he ‘didn’t fully finish the story’ in Squid Game season one.

A third season has already been confirmed to be in the works and is expected to be released some time next year.

The hotly-anticipated second season of came out yesterday (Thursday, December 26), and some fans aren’t exactly thrilled with the news.

It’s been three agonizing years for fans since the South Korean dystopian thriller show came out, which sees hundreds of contestants compete in a series of ‘survival games’ to be in with a chance of bagging a life-changing sum of money.

We are, of course, talking about Squid Game.

The first season, released in 2021, received critical acclaim and attention worldwide, scoring an impressive 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and racing to the top of Netflix’s most-watched series.

The second season follows the protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, three years after he first won the Squid Game.

Seong returns to participate in the games once again facing off against new participants.

However, the new season hasn’t been quite so well-received by some fans, with many taking to social media to air their apparent disappointment with the show.

Viewers branded season two ‘boring’ and a ‘joke’, lacking its signature thrilling plot.

One user on Twitter said season two is ‘lowkey boring’, adding: ‘idgaf about the storyline, just show me the games’.

Another who binge-watched all seven episodes wrote: “What the f*** was up with Squid Game season 2? I feel like I just had a fever dream.”

A third penned: “Squid Game season 2 was such a disappointment, I understand that it is difficult to make a sequel that can hold up to the first one, but season 2 lacked the emotion and curiosity the first one had.”

The fan said they only enjoyed the first episode because of the ‘Russian roulette scenes’, but that the games fell flat.

They continued: “I was expecting more from the games. Unfortunately, as a viewer, I did not feel any emotions when participants died, unlike the first season, where the series had you caring for the players.”

Lee Jung-jae in season one of Squid Game (Firstman Studio/Netflix)

Others said they were frustrated by the ‘extremely sad ending’ and the cliffhanger it leaves.

“Why did they have to end season 2 of Squid Game like that?”, another fan wrote on Twitter: “Where is the rest!?”

The reviews come as a third and final season has also been confirmed, with the show due to be released in 2025.

However, not all fans have been left disappointed with some saying the Boxing Day drop made for a ‘superb binge’ and contained ‘great new games, great new characters and some great emotional moments’.

Another penned: “Just watched Squid Game season 2, how did they top the first season so easily man?”

The creator of Squid Game has revealed why the hit Netflix series has returned for a second season.

The South Korean show quickly became one of the most recognized series on the platform when it released in September 2021.

Racking up a huge 2.8 billion hours viewed in its first two and a half months, it cemented itself as the most-viewed Netflix series that year.

The thriller followed hundreds of cash-strapped contestants who were invited to compete in children’s games for a debt-busting cash prize, with deadly consequences.

Despite being a viral and commercial success, director and creator

Hwang Dong-hyuk wasn’t exactly planning to continue the story.

Not only did he say the stress of working on the show caused him to lose ‘eight or nine’ teeth, but he didn’t really cash-in on Squid Game’s success.

Speaking to the BBC, Dong-hyuk told them the simple reason he went ahead with a second season was ‘money.’

He explained further: “Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much.

“So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”

He added: “And I didn’t fully finish the story.”

He then claimed: “And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.”

Dong-hyuk since told the BBC his stress now was ‘even greater’ than filming for the first series.

Netflix confirmed season two of Squid Game had been greenlit in 2022, with the hotly-anticipated first trailers dropping earlier this year.

In the first season, even though everyone who participated in the games technically chose to be there, it was made clear that those who chose to risk their lives did so because they knew their lives outside the games would be miserable – or possibly even short-lived.

Squid Game fans have been patiently waiting three years for season two (Netflix)

While it’s not exactly clear what season two has in store for viewers, it looks like Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) ready for round two of the deadly games – and most fans are expecting equally bleak and fascinating games and choices for the contestants to make.

The teaser promises Gi-hun’s return to the games after that season one cliffhanger, while teasing some chilling new games that are in store as the stakes ramp up.

Squid Game season two drops on Netflix on December 26.