Squid Game actor T.O.P breaks 11-year silence and reveals why he made a comeback as Thanos

Squid Game 2 has a favourite character, and there’s no argument about it. Thanos was an icon, a legend, and the moment. His personality was that of an evil villain, yet he established himself as the star of Squid Game season two, meeting a grizzly death. Even if you recognised Thanos as the legendary K-pop rapper T.O.P, you might not have known that he’s been buried under a huge controversy for the last decade, and his career slammed to a halt. He’s been cancelled by South Korea for nearly ten years, but now, he’s speaking his truth. T.O.P has finally broken his 11-year silence in an interview with The Korea Times and revealed the reason he made a career comeback to Squid Game to play Thanos.

T.O.P has a similar story to Thanos

Back in 2016, T.O.P faced a 2-year suspended prison sentence for marijuana use during his military service which also saw him face backlash from the Korean media. It was the beginning of a slippery slope that led to him leaving the K-pop boyband BIGBANG, leaving the entertainment industry and leaving South Korea altogether.

In Squid Game 2, Thanos has faced similar hardships. His career faced a similar end after drugs and failed cryptocurrency investments put him in debt. The role wasn’t exactly a dream for T.O.P at first.

“The offer to play Thanos was a daunting proposition. The character mirrored my past, reflecting aspects I’d rather keep hidden. The fear of being pigeonholed into one role made me hesitate. But destiny seemed to be pulling me in this direction,” the 37-year-old told The Korea Times, reflecting on his own past.

Most Read

Hang on, how close are the Kardashians’ and Jenners’ houses to the Los Angeles fires?

Five Guys worker responds after Bonnie Blue ‘harassed’ him to sleep with her at work

The twisted meaning of Squid Game’s Mingle song where ‘Round and Round’ lyrics are super ironic

The other cast members have been attending press events and actively promoting the Netflix show, but T.O.P has been completely cut out of the picture. Not only was he not present at these events, but his personal Instagram has remained pretty inactive too. His interview with The Korea Times is the first time he’s made any public interview since promoting a film he was in back in 2014.

Why did he return to play Thanos in Squid Game?

via Netflix

T.O.P was in a very uncertain mindset after being offered the role of Thanos. It was the show’s creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk who convinced him to change his mind.

“For almost 10 years, I felt no one looked at me, but director Hwang Dong-hyuk reached out to me first. The trust (and) the belief he had in me gave me the courage to take this on. As an actor, it is my duty to repay the trust. Excelling in my performance is another assignment in my life,” he explained.

Getting into character was no easy task

T.O.P actually threw himself into the role of Thanos, and it’s evident in his incredible acting performance. He told The Korea Times that he did a lot of research into the strong drugs Thanos was taking, and how it can affect a person’s behaviour.

“The drug that Thanos uses in the series is extremely potent, so I researched the effects of such substances while developing the character,” he said. “I tried to act differently in scenes where Thanos had not yet used the drug versus those where he had.”

He also wanted to make the drug use heard in his rapping. “There’s a type of rap style in southern U.S. hip-hop called ‘mumble rap,’ often associated with rappers who use powerful stimulants. I tried to channel that in the way Thanos delivers his lines.” What a genius.

Many people still haven’t forgiven T.O.P

BIGBANG was a boyband T.O.P was a part of that started in 2006 but began slowly falling apart with the first member Seungri leaving in 2019, followed by T.O.P himself in 2023.

Despite leaving, T.O.P was a huge writer and composer in the band and even wrote many of their biggest hits. Their fans wanted the group to get back together, but it wasn’t in the stars. T.O.P said he would be retiring in February 2020, when he was just 33 years old. In a SNS live broadcast, he said: “I won’t be coming back to Korea and I won’t make a comeback (to the entertainment industry) at all.” Thankfully, Hwang Dong-hyuk was able to convince him to return to play Thanos, which nobody else could have pulled off like him.

Choi described his 30s as a period of “lost time,” filled with “immense shame, self-loathing, and deep introspection.”

“For the past seven years, I have lived almost isolated from society, spending most of my time at home and in my music studio. So I just kept working on music in the dark and the reason I did that was not for any other reason, but because music was the only place where I could breathe, when I was composing music and standing in front of the microphone. I think I made music to survive,” he said.

“So I wrote a countless number of songs, just by listening to my own dark heart and inner turmoil. I wanted to heal myself through music and I want to share that music with my fans in some way.”

What’s in the future for T.O.P?

After the untimely death of Thanos (gone too soon), T.O.P won’t be making a return for Squid Game 3. However, that’s not to say he’s fully giving up his career.

“My primary goal is to establish a stable and less dramatic life,” he explained.

He further described his vision for a “less dramatic” life, saying, “I want to reach a point where I can wake up without being bombarded by negative news and feel more at peace.”

If the Korean media aren’t ready to forgive him yet, the love for T.O.P seems to be overflowing all over the world. T.O.P, we love YOU! 🫰

Squid Game 2 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.