The ‘Squid Game’ Creator Claims He Lost Six Teeth From The Stress Of Filming The First Season

After arriving on Netflix in September, Squid Game seemingly became an international smash hit overnight as it shattered records left and right. But according to its creator, the show’s production was nowhere near as effortless. While recently sitting down with CNN Film School, Hwang Dong-hyuk claims that filming the first season was so strenuous that he lost six teeth while finally bringing his creation to life. He’s still missing two molars on his left side and still hasn’t had time to get implants.

However, despite the physical toll that Squid Game‘s production inflicted on him, Hwang is not ruling out a Season 2, and he purposefully left the first season open-ended in case the show got renewed. Judging by the numbers the series has been putting up for Netflix, we’re guessing those talks have been happening with a quickness. Via IGN:

“There are some loose ends I’d like to explore if I were to make a second season,” Hwang admitted. “The Frontman’s unexplained past, detective Jun-ho’s story. Those are things I didn’t explain in Season 1. If I were to do Season 2, I’d like to explain those elements. And the man with the Ttakji in his bags, the man who was played by Gong Yoo.”

Squid Game has been a labor of love for Hwang. In a previous interview, Hwang shared that he’d been trying to sell the show for 10 years while living with his mother and grandmother, and the class struggles in Squid Game were deeply personal thanks to growing up in an impoverished neighborhood and going so broke while writing the show that he had to sell his only laptop. Now The creator says he feels like BTS, the South Korean pop super group.