‘Squid Game’ Star Just Became a Dad Amidst Show’s Massive Success

South Korean actor Park Hae Soo has more to celebrate than just the international success of his latest show, Squid Game. The actor and his wife welcomed their first child, a boy, recently, his agency said on Sept. 29. Park, 39, and his wife, who is not a celebrity, married in 2019. “It’s true that Park Hae Soo’s wife recently gave birth to their first son, and Park Hae Soo is now a father,” Park’s representatives at BH Entertainment said in a statement to media outlets, reports AllKPop.

Although many viewers might be seeing Park for the first time in Squid Game, he is a veteran actor in South Korea. He made his television debut in 2012, starring in God of War. His other credits include Six Flying Dragons, Legend of the Blue Sea, The Liar and his Love, Prison Playbook, and Memories of the Alhambra. He also appeared in a segment of Persona, a series that is also available on Netflix. Park can be seen in Time to Hunt, an action thriller Netflix released in April 2020. He performed in several stage production in South Korea between 2007 and 2015.

Park’s next project is Chimera, which also stars Claudia Kim (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) and Lee Hee-joon (The Drug King), reports NME. In the show, Park plays a detective investigating new murders linked to a series of killings 35 years earlier. The show will air on South Korea’s OCN starting on Oct. 30. There’s no word on who will release the series in the English-speaking world, but the success of Squid Game could drive interest in the project.

Squid Game was written, directed, and created by Hwang Dong-hyuk and released on Netflix worldwide on Sept. 17. Park stars as Cho Sang-woo, the head of an investment team wanted by police for stealing money from his clients. His character is among the players who take part in the titular Squid Game to win 45.6 billion won (about $38.7 million). The one catch is the challenges are children’s games with life-threatening consequences.

The show has earned positive reviews from critics and an overwhelmingly positive response from Netflix subscribers. It hit the top spot on Netflix’s most-watched television shows in 90 countries, including the U.S. While Netflix might be hoping for more, Hwang told Variety he has no immediate plans to make a second season.

“I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life,” Hwang told Variety. “As a survival game it is entertainment and human drama. The games portrayed are extremely simple and easy to understand. That allows viewers to focus on the characters, rather than being distracted by trying to interpret the rules.”