Netflix hit the jackpot with Hwang Dong-hyuk’s “Squid Game.” Initially conceived in 2009, the series creator could not find funding for the project until Netflix took interest in 2019. The show’s first season became the most-watched Netflix series of all time and still holds that title. It is trailed by the first season of “Wednesday” and its own second and third/final seasons.
In June 2025, Dong-hyuk toyed with ideas for what a “Squid Game” spin-off could look like. “One of the ideas I’m tossing around is what happened between seasons 1 and 2. There’s a three-year gap. So, for example, what was the Front Man doing during those three years? What was the Recruiter doing?”
An English-language remake spin-off came to life in early 2024 with Dennis Kelly (“Utopia”) and David Fincher attached to write and direct, respectively. But two years later, Netflix has different ideas about the beloved property.
Netflix Cancels ‘Heckler’
According to The Playlist, Netflix has canceled the English-language remake spin-off, titled “Heckler.” Sources state that Netflix’s “priorities with the franchise have shifted,” also citing that the project “lost momentum” as David Fincher took on other film projects.
Fincher, best known as the mastermind behind “Seven,” “Fight Club,” “Gone Girl” and “The Social Network,” moved on to helm “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” as well as to executive produce “The Social Reckoning,” a companion piece to “The Social Network” based on the 2021 whistleblower Facebook leak.
The director’s credits also include “Alien 3,” “Panic Room,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Mank.”
‘Squid Game’ Could Still Live On
In the same The Playlist report, sources indicate that Netflix now eyes the international market for region-specific spin-offs. While there is no mention of any versions of the original IP, the approach opens the door for “Squid Game” to take on a new, bigger life than a U.S.-based remake would offer.
In May 2026, “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk called the experience of the show “unforgettable” and said that it “opened my eyes a little bit to the wider world, and it made me a better person and a better artist,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everything I went through with [the show] has already had a huge impact on my next project, too.”
For now, the writer/director eyes his next project, a film called “KO club,” inspired by the 2011 essay, “How Old People Survive,” written by late Italian novelist and scholar Umberto Eco. Dong-hyuk promises the feature film will be just as grisly as “Squid Game.” He describes the film as a story “about the conflict between generations, set in the near future, not too far from our contemporary time,” noting that he wanted to explore “tensions between generations” that permeate much of modern society.
“People are living longer everywhere, and the younger generation is smaller, but facing a huge tax burden to support older people by paying for their pensions,” he added.
