Squid Game's Hwang Dong-hyuk to direct first theatrical feature in nearly a decade with 'K.O. Club'

Hwang Dong-hyuk will direct K.O. Club, his first theatrical feature since 2017's The Fortress, Firstman Studio confirmed to Variety on 27 August 2026. The sci-fi thriller, shorthand for Killing Oldmen Club, envisions a near-future where wealth buys biological youth. Lee Byung-hun leads a cast including Park Hae-soo, Oh Jung-se, Cho Yeo-jeong and Kim So-jin. Production is targeted for the first half of 2027; no release date is set. Hwang became the first Asian director to win a directing Emmy for a foreign-language series for Squid Game, which ran on Netflix from 2021 through 2025.