Hwang Dong-hyuk, the mastermind behind Netflix’s most watched TV show to date, Squid Game, has revealed in a new interview that he would be jetting off to South Korea soon to write the TV series’ next season. We still have a long-wait to go though, with the creator and director saying he doesn’t expect it to air until late 2024. Luckily, Hwang has been busy working on a different project in the meantime: a movie called Killing Old People Club – based on the works of Italian philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco – that Hwang has promised will be even more thrilling than Squid Game.
During a session at MipTV, Hwang shared that he’s already written a 25-page script for what he says will be “another controversial film”. Killing Old People Club, as the name would suggest, is promised to be more violent than Hwang’s hit Netflix show and, he claims, will mean he will have to hide from old people everywhere when it eventually comes out. Sounds promising!
It’s unclear which of Umberto Eco’s works the movie is based on, or if his texts will act more as an inspiration. The Italian writer and medievalist historian, who passed away in 2016 aged 84, was also known for his fictional mystery novels with themes of philosophy, intellectualism, fascism and religion at their centre. His most famous work, the murder mystery The Name of the Rose, he said came simply from the “seminal idea” that he “felt like poisoning a monk.” Perhaps that same energy fuelled Hwang’s scriptwriting on Killing Old People Club.
Not much else has been shared about the upcoming film yet, including its plot. It comes, though, as murderous boomers are having a moment in horror movies, from A24’s X to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, that reflects a generational divide and a lack of social and political agency felt by young people in this current moment. Though the name of Hwang’s movie suggests old people will be the scream queen victims in this story rather than the slashers, we can assume it too will delve into conversations surrounding social hierarchy and power, much like Squid Game did.
As of yet we don’t have a release date or even a production schedule for Killing Old People Club but it’s likely the movie will be a part of the director’s new multi-project deal with Netflix. Although a second season of the record-breaking Squid Game is probably very high up on the streaming platform’s list of priorities right now, Hwang has previously stated that he wants to create something new before returning to the TV show so that he doesn’t become known as just the Squid Game man. Perhaps then we can expect to see Killing Old People Club on our screens within the next couple of years before we return to the world of deathly playground games.
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