Squid Game Creator Explains Casting Cisgender Actor As Trans Character

Squid game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk explains why a cisgender actor Park Sung Hoon was cast as transgender character Hyun-ju in Season 2.

Hwang, 53, who also wrote and directed both seasons, knew some fans would expect to see a transgender woman in the role of Hyun-joo, a former special forces officer who enters the South Korean series’ deadly competition to earned money for gender confirmation surgery.

“I expected such discussions to arise from the first moment I started creating the character Hyun-ju,” Huang said TVGuide earlier this month. “In the beginning, we were doing our research and I was thinking about authentically casting a trans actor.”

However, Hwang soon found that in South Korea, “there are almost no actors who are openly transgender.”

“Unfortunately, in Korean society right now, the LGBTQ community is still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking,” he explained.

After determining that it would be “nearly impossible to find someone to cast authentically” as a trans woman, Squid game the team settled at 39 Park.

“I’ve been watching his work since his debut and had full confidence in him that he would be the right person in terms of talent to portray this character,” Huang said of Park.

The director’s decision to include a transgender character in Season 2 is consistent with the message of Season 1, which premiered on Netflix in 2021.

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“I saw the people coming to join the games Squid game as people who are usually marginalized or neglected by society, and not just financially speaking,” Huang said Decisive on Friday, December 27. “Today, unfortunately, in Korean society, the gender minority is a group that is not so accepted in society, which is why I created the character Hyun-ju as a male-to-female transgender woman.”

Transgender actors playing transgender roles is a relatively new development even in the United States, but trans activists argue that casting cis actors in trans roles perpetuates the harmful belief that trans people are simply putting on a costume. Annette Benningwhose son Stephen Ira Beatty is transgender, explained the concept during a 2020 interview. with Telegraph.

“The important thing that I really started to understand about this is that sometimes people look at trans people as (putting on) a kind of performance,” Benning, 66, said. “But actually it’s a mistake, it’s a misunderstanding.”

Although facing some criticism for Park’s casting, Hwang hopes that Hyun-ju’s character will be purely positive.

“By creating a character very similar to Hyun-ju and through her choices, her actions, and the way she behaves in the game, I hope it can raise awareness of these issues we face today.” he told Decider.

Season 2 of Squid Game hit Netflix on Friday, December 26. The dystopian thriller series follows participants in a life-or-death game as they compete to win billions of dollars.