(Bloomberg) — Netflix Inc.’s “Squid Game” will return for a second season, with the online streaming company returning to its global hit to recover from an unexpected drop in subscribers.
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“Join us once more for a whole new round,” Hwang Dong-hyuk, the drama’s director, writer and executive producer, said in a letter posted on Netflix’s website. Gi-hun returns he said, referring to the main character. And audiences will be introduced to Cheol-su, the “boyfriend” of the show’s large animatronic doll Young-hee.
Bucket Studio Co., which holds a stake in the agency representing Squid Game’s lead actor, jumped nearly 24% in Seoul on Monday amid a broader selloff in Asian stocks.
“Squid Game,” in which a group of indebted people compete in deadly versions of childhood games to win money as super-rich VIPs watch, was Netflix’s biggest launch ever. The series boosted the popularity of Korean content worldwide and prompting global players including Walt Disney Co., Apple Inc. and Warner Media to invest in local-language titles and original series to lure subscribers.
Netflix is betting that a second season may help stymie this year’s 70% slump in shares after announcing in April that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, the first time it has shed customers since 2011. The company projected it will shrink by another 2 million customers in the second quarter.
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