This time it was a ‘mi daebak’, but there‘s still one more chance.

Season 2 of ‘Squid Game’, one of the biggest hit dramas in Netflix history, ultimately suffered a crushing defeat at the American Golden Globe Awards. However, season 2 is performing at an all-time high, and as it was nominated for Best Picture before the series was even released, hopes for an award next year are growing.

‘Squid Game 2’ was nominated for Best Television Series Drama at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, USA on the 6th (Korean time). ‘Shogun’ (FX), ‘The Diplomat’ (Netflix), ‘Slow Horses’ (Apple TV+), ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ (Prime Video), ‘Day of the Jackal’ (Peacock), etc. It competed with a total of 6 series and unfortunately did not win the award. The trophy went to ‘Shogun’.

This is the second time that the ‘Squid Game’ series has challenged the Golden Globes, following Season 1 in 2022. At that time, it was nominated in 3 categories, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Lee Jung-jae), and Best Supporting Actor (Oh Young-soo), and Oh Young-soo became the first Asian actor to win the award.

Despite this record, it is true that the chances of Season 2 winning an award were not that high. Most people observed that it was too early for the award, not only because of the limitations of the series being non-English, but also because Season 2 had not even been released for 2 weeks. The fact that the story is not yet complete has also been pointed out as an obstacle to the award.

Foreign media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline also viewed the fact that ‘Squid Game 2’ was nominated for Best Picture on December 9, before its official release, as “very unusual”. It is reported that Netflix won the Best Picture nomination after first revealing the drama to the voters and receiving high praise for overcoming cultural and linguistic differences and evoking empathy from international audiences.

Meanwhile, the main characters, including Director Hwang Dong-hyeok and Lee Jung-jae, left for the United States to attend the awards ceremony regardless of whether they won or not.

Director Hwang recently said in an interview with domestic media, “I gave up on expecting an award when I divided the story I wrote with such coherence into Season 2 and 3”, and I think I might be able to aim for Season 3”. Lee Jung-jae, who attended the awards ceremony, also raised expectations by saying, “Season 3 will be filled with more touching themes and more fun games”.


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com