7 Shocking Backstories That Explain The True Origin Of Squid Game (Updated For Season 2)

The global phenomenon that is Squid Game is far more than just a brutal survival drama; it is a complex, layered critique of modern capitalist society, fueled by the real-life desperation of its creator. As of late 2024, with the release of new details and the highly anticipated second season, the origins of the deadly competition have been fleshed out, revealing a horrifyingly tragic and meticulously planned history that extends far beyond the desperate players.

The true "backstory" of the Squid Game is not a single narrative but a chilling tapestry woven from the personal struggles of its mastermind, the dark history of its founder, and the tragic fall of its chief enforcer, The Front Man. These updated revelations provide a fresh, deep look into how the world's most terrifying children's games came to be.

The Genesis of Desperation: Hwang Dong-hyuk's Real-Life Inspiration

The first and most crucial element of the Squid Game's backstory is not fictional—it is rooted in the financial despair of its creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk. His personal experience with crushing debt laid the emotional foundation for the entire series.

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• Personal Debt as Catalyst: In the early 2000s, Hwang was struggling financially, buried under substantial personal debt, which mirrored the exact predicament of the show's protagonist, Seong Gi-hun.
• The Manga Influence: To escape his reality, he began reading Japanese survival manga like Battle Royale and Kaiji, which planted the initial seed for a similar, high-stakes game.
• The Ssangyong Motor Strike: A major source of inspiration for Gi-hun’s character, particularly his past as a laid-off factory worker, came from the highly publicized 2009 Ssangyong Motor strikes in South Korea, a symbol of the country's economic instability and corporate cruelty.

Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the first script in 2009, but it was rejected by studios for over a decade, deemed "too grotesque and unrealistic." This delay ironically allowed the story to become even more relevant as global economic inequality worsened, making the concept of debt-ridden players risking their lives for a massive cash prize tragically plausible.

The Host's True Identity: Oh Il-nam and the VIPs

The biggest twist of Season 1 was the revelation of Player 001, Oh Il-nam (The Old Man), as the true mastermind and co-founder of the Squid Game, known as "The Host." His backstory is the definitive origin story of the game itself.

1. The Creation of the Game (Circa 1988)

Oh Il-nam and a group of his uber-rich, profoundly bored friends created the games as a form of extreme entertainment.

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• Boredom of the Elite: Having accumulated unimaginable wealth, they found their lives meaningless and sought a thrill that money could not buy. They believed that watching desperate people fight for survival was the ultimate form of entertainment.
• The '33rd Game': The competition Gi-hun participated in was the 33rd iteration of the Squid Game, suggesting a long, established history of the deadly event.
• The Philosophy of Despair: Il-nam argued that both the extremely poor and the extremely rich live lives devoid of meaning—the poor due to constant struggle, and the rich due to having everything. The game was his way of finding meaning and "fun" in his final days.

2. Oh Il-nam's Final Participation and Motive

Il-nam decided to participate in the 2020 game himself for deeply personal reasons.

• Terminal Illness: He was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor and wanted to experience the "fun" of the game one last time before he died.
• Personal Curiosity: His interactions with Gi-hun were genuine, driven by a curiosity to see if someone like Gi-hun—a genuinely kind and empathetic person—could exist in a world he and his generation had corrupted.
• The Marble Game Exception: His knowledge of the games allowed him to maintain his safety, such as his feigned confusion in the Marbles game, which was designed to keep him alive until the end. His death in the hospital at the end of Season 1 solidified the transfer of power to the new generation of VIPs and, indirectly, to The Front Man.

The Tragic Fall: The Front Man's Shocking Season 2 Backstory

The most significant and recent backstory revelation comes from Squid Game Season 2, which fully uncovers the tragic path of The Front Man, Hwang In-ho, the masked leader who supervises the games.

3. Hwang In-ho: The Honest Police Officer

The Front Man was not always the cold, emotionless villain seen in Season 1. Before his descent into darkness, Hwang In-ho was an honest, dedicated police officer with a family.

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• A Decorated Past: In-ho was a graduate of the country's top police academy and was 16 years older than his younger brother, Detective Hwang Jun-ho.
• The Debt Trap: Like many contestants, In-ho fell into a desperate financial situation. The exact nature of his debt is tied to his family, pushing him to seek the game as a last resort.

4. Player 001 in the 2015 Game

In-ho’s connection to the games runs deeper than just being the supervisor; he was once a participant.

• The Winner Who Became the Enforcer: Hwang In-ho won the Squid Game in 2015, making him a former Player 001 (not to be confused with Oh Il-nam, who was Player 001 in 2020).
• Motive for Joining: His participation was driven by desperation. Winning the game was supposed to solve his financial woes, but his experience fundamentally broke him, leading him to believe the game's cynical philosophy.

5. The Transformation into The Front Man

The transition from a desperate winner to the chief enforcer is the core of his tragic backstory. He was recruited by Oh Il-nam to replace his role as the operational head of the games.

• Cynical Recruitment: Il-nam likely preyed on In-ho's post-game trauma and disillusionment, convincing him that the world outside was just as brutal, and that the games offered a twisted form of order and control.
• The Symbolism of the Mask: By taking on the role of The Front Man, In-ho shed his identity, becoming a faceless, emotionless executor of the very system that almost killed him, symbolizing how quickly the desperate can become the oppressors.

The Recruitment Process: How Players Are Chosen

The backstory of how players are lured into the game is a chillingly simple reflection of the game's core theme: the exploitation of the desperate.

6. The Ddakji Game and The Salesman

The recruitment is handled by a mysterious Salesman (played by Gong Yoo), who targets individuals with massive, crippling debt.

• The Bait: The Salesman approaches potential players in public, offering them a chance to earn money by playing a traditional Korean children's game called Ddakji.
• The Test of Desperation: The game involves a choice: earn a small amount of money or receive a painful slap to the face. The willingness of the players to endure humiliation and pain for a small, immediate reward proves their level of desperation, making them ideal candidates for the main game.

7. The Origin of the VIPs and The Game's Global Reach

While Oh Il-nam was the Korean founder, the games are an international operation, funded and observed by a cabal of global elites known as The VIPs.

• The Global Spectators: The VIPs are ultra-rich individuals from around the world who gather to bet on and watch the games, treating human life as a commodity for their amusement. Their presence confirms the game is not a localized Korean event but a globally sanctioned, secret spectacle.
• The Next Generation: With Oh Il-nam's death, the games are now fully controlled by this powerful, faceless group of international elites, setting the stage for Gi-hun's mission in Season 2 to expose and dismantle the entire organization.

The updated and combined backstories of the creator, The Host, and The Front Man reveal a deeply cynical structure: a system created by the ultra-rich to entertain themselves with the suffering of the debt-ridden, all of which was inspired by the real-world economic pressures felt by millions. Seong Gi-hun's decision to forgo his flight and turn back is a direct challenge to this entire, interconnected history of exploitation.