Ever since the ’80s hit song “867-5309,” the entertainment industry should know better than to post real phone numbers in songs, TV shows, and movies.
This is why you see so many digits “555”. However, some productions love to add realism with real phone numbers. Get into squid gameone of the most popular shows ever released on Netflix.
‘Squid Game’ offers contestants a chance to win $38 million
Hundreds of people receive invitations from a secret corporation in squid game. Anyone who answers the phone number can sign a contract to participate in a series of games. The winner wins $38 million.
Sounds like a great opportunity for the poor and desperate people who responded to the invitation. Hundreds of contestants are then gunned down in a gigantic, gruesome game of “Red Light, Green Light.”
A man received 4,000 phone calls a day because of ‘Squid Game’
Insider reports that squid game Season 1 was the most popular show on Netflix in 83 countries. In the first episode, the series’ protagonist Ki-hun shows both sides of a simple card. One has a series of symbols similar to a Playstation controller. The other side shows the phone number to call.
Of course, squid game Fans tried to call the number. Surprisingly, the original eight-digit phone number belonged to a real person in South Korea.
This person received 4,000 calls a day. Worse still, people with similar numbers were also getting prank calls, including the businessman’s wife. She had a cell phone number with one digit less than his and also received calls. They both lost sleep over the issue.
A South Korean politician offered to buy the phone number for $85,000. In early October 2021, just three weeks after the series premiered, the streaming service edited the number down to just six digits, according to News24. Now when people call the phone number it says “The number dialed is not in service”.
Lesson learned, albeit a bit late.
How could the producers of ‘Squid Game’ have handled the phone number differently?
This fake phone number could have been handled in many other ways. The producers could have used a completely fake number with the wrong prefix (like 555) or used some unintelligible hyphen. They could have blurred it out or just changed the shot and not show the phone number at all.
The producers could have done what Star Trek: Picard achieved in Season 2. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) receives a metal card from Q (John de Lancie). A phone number appears on one side of the card. It’s a real number, and fans can call it to hear a voicemail from the same omnipotent being, Gizmodo reports. That number is (323) 634-5667. You can still call him today.
The future of ‘Squid Game’ looks promising
squid game Season 2 is in the works. Showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk said that the second season could appear before 2024. The creator also promised new and better games in future seasons.
Until then, fans can enjoy the upcoming Primetime Emmy Awards. The dystopian thriller received 14 nominations across a wide range of categories.
RELATED: ‘Squid Game’ HoYeon Jung pays tribute to Korea with SAG Awards hairstyle