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Hero’s Journey Breakdown: Squid Game

How this classic story structure drives the key plot moments in one of Netflix’s most popular ever shows

Chris Ashby
18 min readOct 31, 2021

Warning: if you have not seen Squid Game this article contains spoilers for the entire show.

There’s no question that Squid Game is going to be one of Netflix’s most popular shows ever. As of today, it’s the number 1 streamed show across dozens of countries including the US, UK, and South Korea.

And if we dig into the story structure behind the show, the beating heart of what makes this gem of a series tick, we can start to uncover some of the reasons why it has been such a runaway success.

Simply put, Squid Game is an incredibly well-told story, with a tonne of depth.

But how does Squid Game do it? And how does the hero’s journey help us to understand why the story of this hit show has had such an impact?

Let’s first look at what the hero’s journey is, and why the hero’s journey story structure has resonated so powerfully with audiences throughout history.

The Hero’s Journey

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Chris Ashby
Chris Ashby

Written by Chris Ashby

Founder of Telescope.design writing about how startups can use design to grow. Get weekly startup design insight and more @ thestartupdesignsystem.com

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