Speaking at the Producers Guild of America awards panel in Los Angeles last week, the legendary director spoke about how the hit Korean show changed the landscape of the TV and film industry.
"'Squid Game' comes along and changes the math entirely for all of us," said Spielberg during a discussion about the importance of movie stars in casting.
"A long time ago it was domestic stars that brought the audience into movies," the 75-year-old said. "Today, it's interesting, unknown people can star entire miniseries, can be in movies."
Also on the panel was Todd Black, producer of 'Being the Ricardos'. He added to Spielberg's point on casting.
"What’s interesting is you can mix and match them also," Black said. "It's really wonderful to be able to say, ‘'Okay, I'm going to have a star in a smaller role. I’m going to have an unknown in the lead role."
"Now, you can go to the streaming service or the studio and say, 'Okay, well, I'll get the name to play for three days in this role but I'm going to go with a total unknown,'" Black added. "Nine times out of 10 if the script is good enough and the budget is small enough, you can pull that off.
Spielberg agreed that some shows might need "an anchor."
"If there’s an anchor they're familiar with you can surround them with lesser known faces."
'Squid Game' released in September 2021 and followed the story of a divorced gambling addict who accepts a mysterious invitation to compete in an exclusive contest, which turns out to be deadlier than expected. The show is Netflix's biggest success to date. The first month of its release saw it rack up 1.65 billion viewing hours.
Earlier this year, creator of the show Hwang Dong-hyuk said that he was in talks over season two and three of the show.
