How do you follow up the biggest Netflix show ever? You double down. Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of “Squid Game,” has set his next series with Netflix, which is a crime drama set in a casino and follows a card dealer who is roped into a seedy underworld of gambling.
The series is called “The Dealer,” and Netflix has given a greenlight to the South Korean drama and also announced its principal cast. Hwang is producing the series alongside “Squid Game” production company Firstman Studio. Here’s the official synopsis:
“The Dealer” centers on Geonhwa, a gifted casino dealer whose life is upended when her wedding plans collapse after she becomes entangled in a housing scam. Forced back into a world she had deliberately left behind, Geonhwa plunges into the shadowy underworld of illegal gambling — and is compelled to tap long-suppressed supernatural abilities that give her an unnatural edge at the tables as she fights to reclaim control of her future.
Jung So-min (“Love Reset,” “Alchemy of Souls”) leads the cast of “The Dealer” as Geonhwa alongside Ryoo Seung-bum, Lee Soo-hyuk, and Ryu Kyung-soo. Choi Young-hwan, a cinematographer on South Korean films “Smugglers,” “The Thieves,” and “Veteran,” is making his directorial debut on the series. “The Dealer” was written by Ohnooy and Lee Tae-young.
All three seasons of “Squid Game” are the No. 1, 2, and 3 non-English language series of all time on Netflix, and the original season of “Squid Game” is Netflix’s biggest series of all time by a healthy margin in any language.
Though a step down from the first season, the second and third seasons of “Squid Game” would still rank higher than any Netflix show other than the first season of “Wednesday” in terms of viewership in its first 91 days on the platform. While setting “The Dealer” inside a casino might help make it comparably colorful and playful as “Squid Game,” Netflix would be lucky to have Hwang’s new show become even a fraction of the global cultural sensation that was “Squid Game.”
Netflix though isn’t done with “Squid Game,” as Hwang has teased spinoffs and there’s plans for an English-language version, with the finale of the series featuring a mega cameo that teased the future of the franchise.
