Hard work finds success and Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae proves the same. The actor who played Sung Ki Hoon in the popular Korean drama won the best actor award at the recently held 74th Emmy Awards. For the unversed, the mega event was held on September 13, 2022, in Los Angeles, USA. Talking about Jung-Jae, he competed for the best actor award with Jason Bateman from Ozark, Bob Odenkirk from Better Call Saul, Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong from Succession, and Adam Scott for Severance.
View this post on Instagram
The announcement
The Television Academy’s official handle opted for a rather catchy way to announce the news of Lee Jung-Jae’s grand win on Twitter. Here is the caption, “Player 456 gets the gold! Lee Jung-Jae wins a first career #Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for @SquidGame (@Netflix)!”
Player 456 gets the gold! Lee Jung-jae wins a first career #Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for @SquidGame (@Netflix)! 🦑 #Emmys #Emmys2022 pic.twitter.com/qlkK3ae2gO
— Television Academy (@TelevisionAcad) September 13, 2022
Squid Game’s nomination
Talking about Squid Game, the Korean series had quite a good run at the Emmy Awards with a nomination for not one but six different categories. The said categories include best supporting actor (Park Hae Soo and Oh Young Soo), best supporting actress (Jung Ho Yeon), best director, best picture, best actor (Lee Jung-Jae), and best screenplay. Talking about Hwang Dong Hyuk, who directed Squid Game, won the best director award in the drama series at the same event. For the unversed, he also became the first Korean to have received the best director award.
Here is what he reportedly said after having won the award, “I said I made history, but I didn’t make it, it was you who opened the door to the Squid Game.” He further added, “So we made this history together.” The director continued, “I hope ‘Squid Game’ isn’t the last Emmy for a Korean drama, and I hope it won’t be my last Emmy either.”
The real Squid Game begins!
Weeks ago, Netflix had a piece of surprising news for the Squid Game fans. It is because the streaming giant is all set for a new reality series based on the mega-hit show. Netflix announced on June 14, 2022, that Squid Game: The Challenge, a new reality show, will be made based on the original mega-hit series that won the hearts of millions around the world.
For the unversed, the original series was also titled Squid Game, and it had 456 members as competitors who joined a mysterious survival but deadly game with a reward of a whopping 45.6 billion KRW. The competitors learned the catch only after joining the game – if you do not win, you will be eliminated from this world permanently. The original series was created by writer, director, and executive producer Hwang Dong Hyuk.