“Succession” and “Ted Lasso” are in the hunt for Emmy nominations that could add to their previous trophy hauls, but they’re up against hungry newcomers. When the bids are announced Tuesday, the social satire “Succession,” a 2020 top-drama winner, may face a showdown with “Squid Game.” The South Korean hit about a brutal survival contest is vying to become the first non-English language Emmy nominee. The Emmys once were dominated by broadcast networks and then cable, with the rise of streaming services changing the balance of power and perhaps the awards themselves. The possibility of Netflix’s “Squid Game” joining the Emmy mix is the result of streaming’s global marketplace focus. Other possible drama contenders include the modern Western “Yellowstone,” workplace thriller “Severance” and “Yellowjackets,” a hybrid survival and coming-of-age tale. Potential competition for “Ted Lasso,” which claimed seven trophies including best comedy last year, includes the inaugural seasons of “Abbott Elementary” and “Only Murders in the Building” — both popular and critical successes. Also read: Walking the red carpet at Cannes, Shuvoo skims the zenith Past top comedy winner “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” also is vying for nods. There are a number of outgoing shows looking for some final Emmy love. Among dramas that includes “This Is Us,” and “Ozark,” with “Insecure” and “black-ish” on the comedy side. Jean Smart, last year’s best comedy actress winner for “Hacks,” is in the running for a nod again, as is the series, with “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis hoping to repeat his 2021 comedy actor win. Bill Hader is chasing a third award in the category for “Barry.” “The Crown,” which dominated the 2021 drama awards, wasn’t televised within the eligibility period and is sitting this year out. Also read: 'Squid Game' star Lee Jung-jae debuts as director in Cannes JB Smoove (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Melissa Fumero (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) and Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma were to announce the nominees. The Emmy ceremony is set for Sept. 12 and will air on NBC, with a host yet to be announced.    

Lee Jung-jae, the award-winning star of Netflix's “Squid Game,” spent years developing the 1980s-set Korean spy thriller “Hunt” before electing to direct himself. He did it a little reluctantly, without big plans to continue filmmaking. But Lee did have a vision for what it could be — and where it could premiere. “Before deciding to direct, I thought I just wanted to make a very fun film,” Lee says. “After I got my hands on it and started writing the script myself, I actually wanted to come to Cannes. Because I wanted to come to Cannes, I had to find the subject matter that would resonate with the global audience.” Few actors know more about capturing the attention of the global audience than Lee. Already one of Korea's top movie stars, the 49-year-old Lee is at the nexus of the “Squid Game” phenomenon, starring in the dystopic series that — subtitles and all — became Netflix's most-watched show in some 90 countries. Now, Lee is in Cannes to premiere “Hunt," which is playing in Cannes’ midnight section and being shopped for international distribution. The film will test how far Lee can further extend his already borderless career. Earlier this year, Lee signed with the Hollywood powerhouse agency CAA. And he grants that he has some Hollywood ambitions. Also read: Walking the red carpet at Cannes, Shuvoo skims the zenith “Working in Hollywood would definitely be a good experience for me,” Lee said in an interview in Cannes shortly before “Hunt” premiered. “If there was a good fit for me, a good character, I’d definitely like to join. But right now, I feel like global audiences are wanting more Korean content and Korea-made TV shows and films. So I would work in Korea as well very diligently. I might seem a little greedy, but if there was a role for me in Hollywood, I’d definitely like to do that, too.” But if Lee's ascension to being an increasingly world-renown actor typifies the pop-culture power of today's Korea, his film is set in an earlier, less harmonious chapter in Korean history. “Hunt” takes place several years after South Korean president Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979 by the chief of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, a coup that ushered in the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. “Hunt” is loosely inspired by his subsequent 1983 assassination attempt orchestrated by North Korea. “The ’80s in Korea was when we had the rapidest growth ever,” says Lee. “But democracy didn’t grow as much because there was a military dictatorship and the media was under full control of the government. So I did hear a lot from the older generation and my parents about those government controls. I also witnessed myself college protests.” “Hunt” grippingly follows a pair of agents (one is played by Lee, the other by Jung Woo-sung) who are both assigned to uncover a North Korean mole within the agency. Lee — not merely dipping his toe into a modest directorial debut — proves skilled at mounting large-scale action sequences and marshalling a dense plot while managing to keep the suspense up. Also read: Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun: Maverick' touch down in Cannes “A lot of people told me that I should change the setting to now,” Lee said, speaking through an interpreter. “But in the ’80s, there was a lot of control of information and people were trying to benefit from fake information and misinformation. I think that still exists now in 2022. Still there are groups that try to benefit from these controls of information and propaganda. “We now live in a global world that’s connected,” he adds. “We don’t have any silos between us. If there’s a problem or issue, we have to all work on it to overcome it.” Lee is often asked how his life has changed since “Squid Game” by Western journalists who might be less familiar with his nearly three decades as a top star in Korea in films like “An Affair,” “New World” and “The Housemaid.” Lee laughs. “It’s natural because a lot of people in the West might not have known me before ‘Squid Game.'" That's changing rapidly, though. Lee will return for season two of “Squid Game,” which the series' creator Hwang Dong-hyuk recently said should be expected in 2023 or 2024. The first season already led to Lee becoming the first Asian actor win the Screen Actors Guild Award for best male performer. Lee was so surprised — aside from considering himself an underdog, he’s a big “Succession” fan — that he never managed to pull out the speech he had written in his pocket. “It still,” Lee says smiling and shaking his head, “seems like a dream to me.”

The Korean drama, thriller, horror fiction series Squid Game was released on Netflix in September 2021. This drama series was at its peak of popularity within a few days of its release. While the Squid Game's making cost is around $21 million, Netflix earned more than $900 million. The first had 9 episodes. Now there is speculation about releasing the Squid Game Season 2 on Netflix. However, there is no official announcement yet. But different sources have been expecting that Netflix will announce the next season anytime soon. Here is what we know about Netflix Web Series Squid Game season 2. Squid Game Netflix: Background Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the squid game series, started working on this story in 2008. However, the idea of a squid game series came to his mind before 2008. At that time, he used to visit a manga café in Korea regularly. LIAR Game, Battle Royale and Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji Manga inspired Dong about the Squid Game. He prepared the preliminary draft by 2009. Dong approached different production houses in Korea with his draft. But no houses showed any interest as the plot was strange and unrealistic. So, what was the plot? Let's have a look. Read Telugu Film RRR: Lifetime Record Breaker and the Pride of Indian Cinema The series is a story of some defeated and troubled people who are frustrated in the battle of life. In this series, 456 debt-ridden contestants take part in a special game. The final winner will get 39 million US dollars. On the other hand, each eliminated person will get killed. This was the main plot, and the players had to take part in 6 different games in a 9-episode series.

The latest vibe to the global tide of Korean pop culture is the Netflix Original Korean Web Series ‘Squid Game’. Most viewed TV shows of the week, most streamed web programs, most discussed topics on social media; all of these records are now in the possession of Squid Game. Within decades of the Gangnam style, Squid Games have made a royal appearance alongside BTS on social media. Let's take a look at the details of this sensational web series. Netflix original ‘Squid Game’ at a glance The South Korean TV series was released worldwide from Netflix on September 17, 2021. Hwang-dong-hyuk is the screenwriter and director of this thriller drama series. The series, set in the context of the Dystopian period, is named after a game of Korean children. To win the game, a team tries to put their feet on the head of a squid painted on the floor. Another group, on the other hand, tried to prevent them from approaching the design. Read:‘Squid Game’ strikes nerve in debt-ridden South Korea The drama shows 456 players competing to win the prize worth 45.6 billion. However, the main purpose of the competition is to feed the entertainment of western investors. Gradually as the game pushes each player against each other, players realize they are stuck in a maze of death. The series stars Park Hae-soo, Lee Jung-Jae, Wi Ha-Joon, O Yeong-Soo, Jung Ho-Yeon, Heo Sung-Tae, Kim Joo-Ryoung, and Anupam Tripathi. Read Munshigiri: Another Epic Creation of Amitabh Reza Featuring Chanchal Chowdhury The TV series, produced by Siren Pictures Inc. has so far shown a season of 9 episodes. Behind the popularity of ‘Squid Games’ One of the reasons behind the rise of Squid Games is the subtitles in 37 languages and dubbing versions in 34 languages. That’s why the screenplay of helpless adults winning children's games has been well received by the audience. Moreover, the series lovers have been able to pay attention to the characters as they have not exaggerated the whole drama with the details of the game. And in this way, the TV show has tried to impress the viewers with the drama of various characters. The series surpassed 13 million followers on social media in the first three weeks of its premiere. Read James Bond Movie 'No Time to Die' is Finally Going to Be Released Not to mention the credit for Netflix, which accounts for 45.8 percent of OTT's industry-leading digital content.

“Squid Game," a brutal Netflix survival drama about desperate adults competing in deadly children’s games for a chance to escape severe debt hit a little too close to home for Lee Chang-keun. The show has captivated global audiences since its September debut, becoming one of Netflix’s biggest hits. It has struck raw nerves at home, where there’s growing discontent over soaring personal debt, decaying job markets and stark income inequalities worsened by financial crises in the past two decades. In the dystopian horrors of Squid Game, Lee sees a reflection of himself in the show’s protagonist Seong Gi-hun, a laid-off autoworker coping with a broken family and struggling with constant business failures and gambling problems. Seong gets beaten by gangster creditors into signing off his organs as collateral, but then receives a mysterious offer to play in a series of six traditional Korean children’s games for a shot at winning $38 million. The South Korea-produced show pits Seong against hundreds of other financially distressed players in a hyper-violent competition for the ultimate prize, with losers being killed at every round. Read:James Bond Movie 'No Time to Die' is Finally Going to Be Released It is raising disturbing questions about the future of one of Asia’s wealthiest economies, where people who once crowed about the “Miracle of the Han River” now moan about “Hell Joseon,” a sarcastic reference to a hierarchical kingdom that ruled Korea before the 20th century. “Some scenes were very hard to watch,” said Lee, a worker at South Korea’s Ssangyong Motors who struggled with financial difficulties and depression after the carmaker laid him and 2,600 other employees off while filing for bankruptcy protection in 2009. After years of protests, court battles and government intervention, Lee and hundreds of other Ssangyong workers returned to work in recent years. But not before a spate of suicides among co-workers and family members who were plunged into financial misery. “In Squid Game, you see characters scrambling to survive after being laid off at work, struggling to operate fried chicken diners or working as ‘daeri’ drivers,” who get paid for driving drunk people home in their own cars, Lee said. “That reminded me of my co-workers who died.” Lee said he and his colleagues struggled to find work and were backlisted by other auto companies that considered them militant labor activists. A 2016 report by Korea University medical researchers said at least 28 laid-off Ssangyong workers or their relatives died of suicide or severe health problems, including those linked to post-traumatic stress disorder. Squid Game is one of many South Korean shows inspired by economic woes. Its dark tale of inequality and class has drawn comparisons with Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” another pandemic-era hit with stunning visuals and violence exposing the underside of South Korea’s economic success story. South Korea’s rapid rebuilding from the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War has been spectacular –- from Samsung’s emergence as a global technology giant to the immense popularity of K-pop and movies that’s expanding beyond Asia — millions of South Koreans now grapple with the dark side of that rise. Read:Scarlett Johansson, Disney settle lawsuit over 'Black Widow' “Class problems are severe everywhere in the world, but it seems South Korean directors and writers tackle the issue with more boldness,” said Im Sang-soo, a film director. In Squid Game, Seong’s troubles trace back to his firing a decade earlier from the fictional Dragon Motors, a nod to Ssangyong, which means “double dragon.” Hundreds of workers, including Lee, occupied a Ssangyong plant for weeks in 2009 to protest the layoffs before being dispersed by riot police who besieged them, assaulted them with batons, shields and water-cannons and dropped tear gas cannisters by helicopter. That violent standoff injured dozens and is woven into Squid Game's narrative. Seong has flashbacks about a Dragon coworker killed by strikebreakers while organizing fellow game participants to create barricades with dormitory beds to block murderous sneak night attacks by more vicious opponents looking to eliminate the competition. Ultimately, it's every person for themselves in Squid Game's cruel battle royale between hundreds of people willing to risk even their lives for a shot at freeing themselves from the nightmare of insurmountable debts. The show features other crushed or marginalized characters, like Ali Abdul, an undocumented factory worker from Pakistan with severed fingers and a boss who refuses to pay him, epitomizing how the country exploits some of the poorest people in Asia while ignoring dangerous working conditions and wage theft. And Kang Sae-byeok, a pickpocketing North Korean refugee who had known nothing but rough life on the streets and is desperate for money to rescue her brother from an orphanage and to smuggle her mother out of the North. Many South Koreans despair of advancing in a society where good jobs are increasingly scarce and housing prices have skyrocketed, enticing many to borrow heavily to gamble on risky financial investments or cryptocurrencies. Read:Tomorrow: Bangladeshi Animation Film on Climate Change at Cannes World Film Festival Household debt, at over 1,800 trillion ($1.5 trillion), now exceeds the country's annual economic output. Tough times have pushed a record-low birth rate lower as struggling couples avoid having babies. Squid Game’s global success is hardly a cause for pride, Se-Jeoung Kim, a South Korean lawyer based in Poland, wrote in a Seoul Shinmun newspaper column. “Foreigners will come to you, saying they too watched Squid Game with fascination, and may ask whether Ali’s situation in the drama could really happen in a country that’s as wealthy and neat as South Korea, and I would have nothing to say,” she said. Kim Jeong-wook, another Ssangyong worker who spent months with Lee perched atop a chimney at a Ssangyong factory in 2015, demanding their jobs back, said he couldn't watch Squid Game after episode one. “It was too traumatic for me,” he said.