Ever since Squid Game dropped on Netflix, people from over 22 countries have been binge-watching the show and raving about it. To the delight of many fans, Netflix finally dropped the newest teaser and the official release date for its second season. Plus, the streaming giant also confirmed the popular series' third and final season. Read on as we unveil everything you need to know about this highly-anticipated show.
Latest updates on Squid Game Season 2
If you're on the edge of your seat trying to stay within the loop of Squid Game Season 2's possible plot and developments, we've got you covered. As of August 2024, Netflix has released the latest teaser from the upcoming season and a letter from the show’s Director and Executive Producer Hwang Dong-hyuk.
The Recruiter and The Frontman are back in action. (Photos from: Netflix)
Last February 2024, the streaming platform also unveiled the official photo stills, creating anticipation for the much-anticipated return of Gi-hun, known as the Games' Front Man (played by Lee Byung-hun), and the Recruiter (played by Goblin's Gong Yoo).
Interestingly enough, the season teasers also revealed a new character played by Park Gyu-young (It's Okay Not To Be Okay). The scene, which shows Gyu-young's unnamed character holding a Squid Game recruitment card, appears to be from after her encounter with the Recruiter.
Park Gyu-young's character may add more depth to the Squid Game Universe. (Photo from: Netflix)
Squid Game Season 2: cast, controversy, and more
It was revealed during Netflix’s recent Tudum 2023 fan event that Yim Si-wan (Misaeng), Kang Ha-neul (When The Camellia Blooms), Park Sung-hoon (The Glory), and Yang Dong-guen (The Forbidden Marriage) were cast as the new players in the deadly game. The show faced backlash afterwards since no new female cast members were included.
About two weeks later, Netflix announced that more actors and actresses had been added. We’ll be seeing Park Gyu-young, K-pop idol Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-sim (Bad and Crazy), Lee David (Law School), Lee Jin-uk (Sweet Home), former BIGBANG member T.O.P. AKA Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won (Once Upon a Small Town), and Won Ji-an (Heartbeat) in the upcoming season.
However, the show received another round of criticism because it appears that the former K-pop idol T.O.P. was only able to be a part of the show because of his close friendship with Season 1 star Lee Jung-jae. So far, Netflix has not addressed whether the rumours were true or not.
Is Tony Leung joining Squid Game Season 2?
Actress Carina Lau, wife of Hong Kong superstar and Everything Everywhere All At Once actor Tony Leung, posted a photo of her husband having a chat with Squid Game director Hwang Dong-Hyuk. Carina captioned the photo, "Ready for Squid Game?" while also tagging the show's official Instagram handle.
However, this just seems to be a rumour because Netflix has already announced all the cast members of Season 2.
When does Squid Game Season 2 start filming?
According to various K-media reports last June 2024, the cast and crew of the famous K-series officially wrapped up the filming for its second and final season and held a two-day wrap-up party. Both seasons are said to be filmed at the same time, with season 2 reportedly having six episodes, and season 3 consisting of six to seven episodes.
Season 2 plot predictions: Will Gi-Hun succeed in getting his revenge?
Season 2 will revolve around the theme of revenge. Gi-Hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) and The Front Man (played by Lee Byung-hun) will be the central characters of the next chapter of the story, taking place three years after the events of its inaugural season.
Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk also revealed in his letter that Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae) will join the deadly game again and the fierce clash between him and the Front Man will continue until the final season.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director also said that while Gi-Hun's "humanity" (a.k.a. kindness and compassion) showed in the first season, it was manifested in a very "passive manner". This is probably because Gi-Hun's drive to survive the games came first, which is understandable given the most basic human instincts. However, Hwang claimed that in the second season, Gi-Hun's values and personality, along with everything he learnt from the games, will be showcased in a more "active manner". Intriguing, right?
Here's what we hope happens. Since Gi-Hun will re-enter the Squid Game, we’re guessing that he will abolish the system from within, after all, he already knows how it works and how to survive its stages. So what better way to destroy the game once and for all than to beat it in its own playing ground?
However, given his trauma from the previous games, would he subject himself to it again? Maybe not. This leads us to our next theory: he’ll join the VIP council.
Now that he’s got the money from the previous game, he can infiltrate the VIPs from within. He can trace the network the game operates by and deal with it from there. It seems less likely since it’ll completely change the flow of the story, but again, the ending left so many things to explore.
Lastly, there might be more than one winner in Season 2. Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk expressed the possibility of this in an interview, saying that the events of Season 1 only took a sour turn because the players immediately fixated on eliminating each other rather than helping each other.
More Squid Game Season 2 plot rumours
Jung Hoyeon won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 for playing the quick-witted and mysterious North Korean player Sae-Byeok in Squid Game. Her character was a fan favourite but was unfortunately killed off in the eighth episode of Season 1. However, rumours suggest that the show will have her come back in the second season as her original character's twin.
We don't know how to feel about this news since Sae-Byeok's backstory never implied that she had a twin. In fact, it focused on her relationship with her younger brother and how she joined the games for him because they had no one else to fend for them. This makes the idea of a twin a bit ridiculous and created for fanservice. We'd much rather see Jung Hoyeon in Season 2 as Sae-Byeok in a flashback.
This makes more sense plot-wise if the series protagonist Gi-Hun a.k.a. Player 467 (Lee Jung-Jae) chooses to reconnect with Sae-Byeok's brother from time to time, especially since Gi-Hun still feels sorry about not being able to save Sae-Byeok in the game.
In Netflix's previous post about the series, Hwang Dong-Hyuk also teased the introduction of Cheol-su, the 'boyfriend' of Young-Hee (the creepy robot doll in the first game). Could this signal the repeat of events from Season 1? Or does this mean the games in Season 2 will be something completely unexpected? We're even more hyped about the upcoming season now!
Public reception of Squid Game
While the series may have been well-received, it’s not without controversies. Korean netizens (Knetz) alleged that Squid Game plagiarised parts of the 2014 Japanese film As The God’s Will. Multiple Knetz pointed out that Squid Game’s first episode strongly resembles the movie’s iconic Daruma sequence. The director has denied these allegations, saying that his concept for the series was already drafted in 2008, while the manga As The God’s Will was based on is first published in 2010.
그리고 오징어게임 일본작품 표절입니다 https://t.co/5kS1oZL5Su pic.twitter.com/rAfQEWXAm3
— 7 (@Fra77777777) September 19, 2021
A recap of Squid Game season 1 finale episode
Gi-hun and Sang-woo's fate
The survival-themed nine-episode series follows the story of Seong Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae), a man leading a miserable life who suddenly finds himself a participant in a to-the-death battle for money against 456 players. Among these players is Cho Sang-Woo (Park Hae-Soo), Gi-Hun’s childhood friend who is like a brother to him. Sang-Woo joined the game with Gi-Hun due to a personal crisis, giving him a strong motivation to try and win the game.
Around the finale, we discover that the Squid Game was created as just a past-time for bored elites called VIPs (much like the Capitol people from The Hunger Games). This makes the ending harder to watch since Gi-Hun and Sang-Woo are the last players left in the game and are expected to fight to the death as pawns for the VIPs’ entertainment. The spectators watched in glee as the two fought with bloodied hands using their fists and knives.
Sang-Woo ends up getting heavily injured so Gi-Hun decides to call off the game, much to the VIPs’ amusement. One of the VIPs even laughed at the idea that Gi-Hun was ready to give up the prize money for friendship. When Gi-Hun stretched out his hand to Sang-Woo, telling him they should just go home, Sang-Woo resigns and stabs himself in the neck after apologising to Gi-Hun. Sang-Woo’s last wish was for Gi-Hun to help his mother with the prize money that Gi-Hun now won by default.
We love the idea that in the end, despite Sang-Woo’s horrible decisions throughout the game, his bond with Gi-Hun still won over his greed. It goes with the theme that the difference between the players and the VIPs is how the former view life and money. That, and having principles is much better than having no regard for other people’s lives.
The importance of KRW10,000
When he was released into the ‘real world’ by the gamekeepers, Gi-Hun withdrew KRW10,000 from his account and discovered that the prize money (around KRW49 million) was already in his savings too. He leaves it as it is. He then comes across Sang-Woo’s mother who was worried when she saw him in his bloodied state. She gave him some food and he tried to give her the KRW10,000 he got earlier but she refused. Before he left, she asked him about Sang-Woo but he was too traumatised to answer. He comes home to find that his own mother has passed away.
A year later, we see a bearded Gi-Hun looking even more disheveled than he was at the beginning of the story. He was summoned by the bank for inactivity in his account, saying that the huge amount of money in his savings isn’t earning much interest as it is. Through this we learn that Gi-Hun never touched his prize money. Instead of dealing with the request, Gi-Hun asks the bank manager for KRW10,000 with no explanation, to which the manager agreed curiously. Later we see Gi-Hun using the money to buy flowers from a street vendor.
Both instances were a callback to the first episode. In the pilot, Gi-Hun gambled the KRW10,000 he got from his mother and tried to win back the amount by accepting the challenge from The Salesman (Gong Yoo) who recruited him to the Squid Game.
It might be a metaphor for how much a small amount can change your life, either for better or worse, depending on what you spend it on. Back then, he used the money on senseless things instead of prioritising his mother or his promises to his daughter. Now that he has more money, he’s already lost them both (his daughter was taken away by his ex-wife to the U.S.). Not to mention he lost his childhood friend over it. This might explain why he was so hesitant to spend any of his prize money, considering that getting it brought him nothing but misery.
The bet between Il-Nam and Gi-Hun
In the finale, Gi Hun also goes to visit Player 001 a.k.a. Oh Il-Nam in the hospital, who we find out is actually a former VIP. Already on his deathbed, Il-Nam challenges Gi-Hun in a bet in exchange for him answering questions about the game. Il-Nam says that no one will help the homeless drunk man across the street before the clock strikes midnight, implying how horrible humans can be most of the time. Gi-Hun bets otherwise. As they wait for the time to be up, the two discuss the cruelty of the game, which Il-Nam is amused by. Gi-Hun ends up being right as someone ends up helping the homeless drunk man. However, Il-Nam already passed away before their game concluded.
While the bet may seem pointless, we think it’s actually a good metaphor for what Squid Game is about. Just like the VIPs versus the players on the field, Gi-Hun and Il-Nam decided to be spectators of the man’s fate instead of helping him themselves (at least on Gi-Hun’s part) partly for their own entertainment. And whatever the intent or result was, it doesn’t mean that there’s no damage done in either cases.
The discussion that went on during the bet also proved that the game wasn’t fair at all. Il-Nam was in no actual danger when he was in the game since he knows how each level works as a former VIP. He was also there on his own will since it was his wish to have some fun before his brain tumor consumes him. In the end, it was all entertainment for him whereas life and death was at stake for others. The entire confrontation between Il-Nam and Gi-Hun in this very sequence depicted betrayal of trust, loss of hope, and resigning to one’s own curiosity or greed all before achieving a payoff that may or may not be worth it — something similar to the entire point of the games.
Their player numbers are also interesting since they are the first and the last players of the game (number-wise). Il-Nam was one of the designers of the game, symbolising that it started with him. His player number 001 was a huge clue to his identity all along. Gi-Hun, on the other hand, wants to break the game, just like how him being player 456 (out of 456 players in his game) meant it ‘ends’ with him. Whether it’s a metaphor for the game’s ideology going full circle, we’re not quite sure. But there’s a certain poeticness to it considering what we learn about their fates.
With Squid Game season 2 confirmed, we're glad that this genre of K-Drama is finally getting more traction. Beyond the entertainment and gore, they also give good social commentary. We can only hope that we can also apply whatever lessons we gather from this type of work to our own game of life.
Squid Game Season 2 and 3 release date
Ready to enter the game once again? Netflix announced the official premiere date of the second season which will be on 26 December 2024, while also confirming that its third and final season will show in 2025.
(Cover photo from: @netflix)
This story was first published on 16 February 2023. Last update: 6 August 2024.
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