Netflix’s Squid Game Season 2 Introduces The Show’s First Trans Character

“Squid Game” season 2 spoilers follow.

One of the things that makes the hit Netflix series “Squid Game” so compelling is the wide range of individuals who decided to sign up for the games. It’s a smart way to show that the real villain — rampant late-stage capitalism — impacts almost everyone who isn’t filthy rich. As far-fetched as it may seem, many of us are just one bad decision, accident, or illness away from maybe seeing something like “Squid Game” as the only way out. It’s scary stuff, and having characters that represent all different walks of life really drives the point home because the audience can relate. It also helps us empathize with characters who are experiencing something unique to us; I grew to have a lot of love for season 1’s Player 067, Kang Sae-byeok (HoYeon Jung), and it’s hard to imagine the first season without her. 

The third episode of season 2 has brought in another character who will hit home for some audiences while introducing a foreign concept to others: Player 120, Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), a transgender woman. Some (ignorant, bigoted) fans who miss the point of “Squid Game” entirely might see this as trying to force positive portrayals of transgender people down their throats, like the recent backlash with “Star Wars” fans over a trans clone trooper, but trans people exist and deserve to be depicted on screen just as much as any of the rest of us. There is one issue, however: Park is a cisgender man playing a transgender woman. Let’s take a closer look at this character who’s almost guaranteed to be controversial both in the show’s native South Korea as well as here in the United States.  

In a promotional video for the second season, Park described Hyun-ju as a “former special forces soldier and a transgender woman” who “joins the game because she’s short on money for her gender-affirming surgery.” She was kicked out of the military when she began transitioning, and unfortunately, her family and friends completely shunned her. While some LGBTQ identities are protected classes in South Korea and there was a monumental Supreme Court case that ruled in favor of allowing a transgender woman with young children to be allowed to change her gender legally in 2022, transgender people still face intense discrimination. So it makes sense to some degree that Hyun-ju would face the horrors of Squid Game in order to start a new life because the life she had in South Korea was no life at all. 

Park goes on to describe Hyun-ju very positively, highlighting her tenacity:

“Even though she faces prejudice and tough situations, she shows incredible strength, decisiveness, and natural leadership. Through her resilience, she breaks down stereotypes and shines as an inspiring character.”

Initially, some players, like Player 149, Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim), are confused about playing alongside a transgender woman, but eventually come to realize she is just like any one of them. It’s great that Geum-ja eventually becomes friends with Hyun-ju and that Hyun-ju gets to be somewhat heroic, but it’s still frustrating that she’s being portrayed by a cisgender man. Netflix has done some great things to help the transgender community this year, like streaming the vital, must-see documentary “Will and Harper,” and even the wildly frustrating “Emilia Pérez” at least stars trans performer Karla Sofía Gascón in the lead. So why couldn’t they cast a trans actor for “Squid Game” season 2? Well, according to the show’s creator, there’s a specific reason.

According to “Squid Game” creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, finding a Korean trans actor for the role proved difficult, if not impossible. Speaking with TV Guide, Hwang said it was “near impossible to find someone who we could cast authentically,” adding:

“In the beginning we were doing our research, and I was thinking of doing an authentic casting of a trans actor. When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately in the Korean society currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking.”

In the wildly important documentary “Disclosure,” actress, writer, and producer Jen Richards explains why it’s vital to have trans women in trans roles:

“In my mind, part of the reason that men end up killing trans women out of fear that other men will think that they are gay for having been with trans women, is that their friends, the men whose judgment they fear, only know trans women from media and the people who are playing trans women are the men that they know. This doesn’t happen when a trans woman plays a trans woman; Laverne Cox is just as beautiful and glamorous off-screen as she is onscreen. When you see these women off-screen still as women, it completely deflates the idea that they are somehow men in disguise.”

Richards is absolutely correct, but the material safety of a trans actress in South Korea also needs to be taken into consideration as this is still a South Korean production despite its international popularity. It’s also a sign that there’s still so much more that can be done to have better, more authentic representation. We need trans stories on our screens now more than ever. If you want to see something on Netflix about a real trans woman that will make you laugh and cry, just go watch “Will and Harper.” Everyone needs to.

“Squid Game” season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.