David Fincher might be remaking Squid Game in English, but do we want him to?

David Fincher is the director behind influential movies like Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac, not to mention having a hand in foundational series like House of Cards. The director has worked closely with Netflix in recent years, releasing solid movies like The Killer and great shows like Mindhunter. And now, Deadline has it that his next project may be an English-language remake of Squid Game.

The first season of Squid Game dropped back in 2021. It wasn't just a hit; it became Netflix's most-streamed show ever, which surprised a lot of people. Who expected a Korean-language drama about debt-ridden people battling for their lives for the amusement of sadistic billionaires would be this big of a hit? Makes you think.

Anyway, Netflix capitalized on the success of Squid Game with an unscripted reality show called Squid Game: The Challenge, not to mention a second season of the original show coming out this December. But an English-language remake would be the first scripted offshoot.

Deadline is careful to point out that details about this remake are "vague," so we shouldn't take this report as gospel. And as The A.V. Club points out, Fincher has a habit of falling in and out of love with projects: whether it's movies like The Devil in the White City, Cleopatra and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or TV shows like Videosyncrazy, Utopia and Shakedown, there are a lot of things he started but didn't finish. Personally, I would love a third season of Mindhunter if he could summon the interest, cause that show was lit.

Squid Game doesn't need an English-language remake

So Fincher may or may not end up actually directing an English-language version of Squid Game. I'm sure whatever he made would be good, but this raises another question: does this need to be made at all?

Remaking foreign language hits in English isn't a new concept; Fincher himself did it when he remade the Swedish thriller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (he's contemplated making sequals to that, by the way, but in true Fincher fashion they've never materialized). In some cases, they can help expose smaller projects to a wider audience. But Squid Game doesn't need the help. We're talking about a show that was streamed for 1.65 billion hours within its first four weeks of release. People love Squid Game as it is.

That's not to say that an English-language version couldn't be interesting, especially with Fincher at the helm, but it would feel like something Netflix does just to do it, rather than because there's a compelling reason for it, and that sounds like a waste of Fincher's time. Why bother when there are other projects that could use his attention? Hint hint Mindhunter season 3 hint hint.

Fans around the world seem more open to foreign language films and TV series these days. For instance, look at Parasite becoming the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars back in 2019. Incidentally, HBO is looking into making an English-language TV series based on that movie, so we haven't entirely kicked this habit yet.

In any case, the second season of Squid Game drops on Netflix on December 26, 2024. Whether an English-language version will follow, we'll see.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.