“Squid Game 2” Director Directly Addresses Transgender Character’s Controversial Casting
The long-awaited season 2 of Squid Game will be added to Netflix‘s catalog in just a few days, with Lee Jung Jae returning as Seong Gi Hun to lead a new all-star cast into the next round of deadly games.
There has been much discussion about the cast, as netizens marvel at the many different stars cast in the series. However, one actor’s casting did spark controversy over the character he was selected to play.
Actor Park Sung Hoon, who recently appeared in The Glory and Queen Of Tears, was selected to play a transgender woman, Hyun Ju (also romanized as Hyun Joo).
Park Sung Hoon is cis-gender, and his casting sparked mixed reactions from netizens, with many saying that an actual transgender woman should have been given the role.
Recently, the show’s director directly addressed Park’s casting for the role.
In an interview with TV Guide, creator and directly Hwang Dong Hyuk admitted to knowing that there would be mixed feelings over the casting.
I did anticipate such discussions to arise from the first moment I began creating the character Hyun Ju.
— Hwang Dong Hyuk
He shared that he did want to “authentically” cast a transgender woman, but discovered there were close to no actors that were openly trans. He accounted this to the LGBTQ community still being marginalized in Korea, mentioning there were also few openly gay actors either.
In the beginning we were doing our research, and I was thinking of doing an authentic casting of a trans actor. […] When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately in the Korean society currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking.
— Hwang Dong Hyuk
With this in mind, Hwang added that he trusted that Park “would be the right person in terms of talent in portraying this character.”
Squid Game season 2 will be added to Netflix on December 26, 2024.
