Jeon Chaeyoung, the producer-director who directed Bloody Game X, expressed regret over Lee Sang-min's mid-production withdrawal.
On the 1st, an interview with Jeon Chaeyoung, producer-director of the Wavve original Bloody Game X (produced by Most267), was held at a location in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul.
Bloody Game X is a new series of Bloody Game that deals with extreme survival games featuring the strongest minds and physical competitors. Bloody Game won the love of fans by realistically depicting the process of fiercely competing to become the final survivor amid unpredictable rules and meticulous design.
Bloody Game X broke the existing format that centered on individual survival and added a team competition structure. Major players who were active in seasons 1, 2 and 3 competed as teams representing each season, while players from other survival shows and new players joined as new teams to contest pride-driven team battles, and in the end Kang Ji-hoo defeated Hyun Seong-ju and Yoon Bi consecutively in the final match to claim the ultimate victory.
With thrilling and tense mind games unfolding, Bloody Game X not only ranked first in new paid Wavve sign-ups and viewing time for eight consecutive weeks immediately after its release, but also took overall first place in the Good Data Corporation's "Fundex Chart" for the third week of August in the TV-OTT non-drama topicality institutional sector. It achieved overall first place six times, and with all released episodes entering the topicality chart's first and second places, it recorded the highest topicality among the Bloody Game series.
Jeon Chaeyoung said she regretted Lee Sang-min's withdrawal more than anyone. Lee Sang-min, who appeared on a survival program for the first time in 11 years, performed strongly as a player but suddenly forfeited and withdrew mid-production on the sixth day of the game due to his wife's health problems. Jeon Chaeyoung, who opened by saying "there were practical problems," said, "Because it was a program with group lodging, additional filming outside the scheduled time was difficult. If you left to take care of personal matters and came back, you couldn't film up to the scheduled episode within the allotted time. There was no other alternative, so (voluntary withdrawal) was an unavoidable choice."
It was all the more regrettable that the game scheduled for the next day was one in which Lee Sang-min had shown confidence. The former PD said, "The mafia game was scheduled for the next day, and because Lee Sang-min is so good at that game, I was left wondering how it would have been if he had been there, so I felt regretful."
Jeon Chaeyoung named Kim Kyunghun and Lee Kwanhee as the unexpectedly outstanding player and the player who left regrets, respectively. The former PD said, "A lot of time has passed since The Genius, and I thought Kim Kyunghun had matured a lot. With age and experience, he became a more interesting person," and "As for Lee Kwanhee, it wasn't that he performed badly so much as it was a pity that he was eliminated early. There was a later game with added physical elements, and I wondered how he might have performed then."
As Bloody Game X, which felt like a Bloody Game all-star match, concluded, interest in future seasons and cast members is growing. Jeon Chaeyoung said, "If given the opportunity, I would gladly do it. I think we would need to consider the team competition. Even if it's a team competition, how to organize it would be something to deliberate," and "Now there are times when I feel the cast has surpassed the production team's level, so concerns about that will continue. As the level of the cast rises, I hope many new players are discovered."
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