The highly anticipated second season of Squid game has dropped and fans are seriously divided over trans character Hyun-Ji, played by cisgender actor Park Sung-Hoon.
Warning: spoilers for Squid game season 2 in advance!!!
The beloved South Korean thriller, which returned after three years on Thursday (December 26), came back with a bang as fans saw Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-Jae, return to the deadly competition.
The new season introduces many new faces who bravely (or perhaps foolishly) compete for the cash prize, including Hyun-Ji (Park Sung-Hoon), a trans character who aims to win the games to pay for his change surgery of sex. .
The character's inclusion caused mixed reactions among LGBTQ+ fans, some of whom praised the series for its “well-written” portrayal of a trans woman, while others questioned whether a cis man was suitable to play the role.
“Squid Game 2 is surprisingly good, but did they HAVE to cast a cis guy to play a (synchronized) trans woman,” one user wrote.
“Couldn’t they cast a real transgender woman… This is going to piss me off,” another wrote.
Besides frustration that the role was given to a cisgender actor, others complained that the role itself seemed a bit lacking and could have been played better.
“The trans character in Squid game we have so little to do lol,” wrote one complainant. “For the first four episodes, she walks around quietly while other characters throw punches at her. It’s the kind of far-fetched “representation” that does nothing for anyone other than check a box.
However, others completely disagreed, arguing that Hyun-Ji is “surprisingly” well-written.
“This is the way this show brought together an old woman, a pregnant woman and a trans woman and flat out said they were all valid while the women moved me to tears,” one user wrote . “Holy shit.”
Another person agreed, saying: “Watching the new season of Squid game and I absolutely love the trans character, the writers wrote her with so much love and care.
Earlier in December, Squid game Director and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has defended the controversial decision to make Park Sung-Hoon a trans woman in season 2 of the hit Netflix series.
(Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Speaking to TV Guide, he revealed why it would have been difficult to cast a trans woman in South Korea.
“I expected such discussions to arise from the first moment I started creating the character,” he said. “At first we were doing our research and I was thinking about doing a real trans actor casting.
“When we did research in Korea, there were hardly any actors [who] are openly trans, and even less openly gay, because unfortunately, in Korean society, the LGBTQ+ community is still marginalized and neglected, which is heartbreaking.
Squid game season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
