Squid Game Season 2: Everything We Know About the Storyline, Release Date, Casting and More
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On Sept. 17, 2023, it will have been two full years since the Squid Game phenomenon began sweeping this nation (and many others). What’s the status of the awaited Season 2, and what all do we know about it?
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First, to succinctly recap: Across nine episodes, Squid Game Season 1 followed Seong Gi-hun (played by Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae), a gambling-prone divorcé as he and 455 other downtrodden strangers were knocked out with gas and whisked away to a secret island complex, to compete in a series of children’s games all given decidedly deadly spins.
Ultimately emerging from the ordeal as the sole survivor, Gi-hun for a whole year barely touched his 45.6 billion won payday, until he was invited to a mysterious rendezvous with, it turned out, Oh Il-nam aka “The Old Man,” who was believed to have been executed after Round 4 but in fact was alive and had been running this illicit enterprise all along! Not long into their reunion, though, the Old Man succumbed to a brain tumor that had ailed him.
Squid Game Season 1: 15 Questions We Have!
Gi-hun later made tracks for the airport, to visit his daughter in Los Angeles, but along the way he saw the man who groomed him for the game doing the same with another stranger. Snatching a calling card from the stranger, Gi-hun dialed the number and announced his intention to find out who exactly the game’s organizers were and why they engage in the atrocities they do. Though the voice on the other end advised Gi-hun to go on with his travels, he instead decided not to board the plane but… do what?
Squid Game was a massive (if initially stealthy) hit for Netflix, and though there were rumblings about a renewal as early as November 2021 (not two months after its debut), it would not be super-duper officially renewed until June 2022.
But when will Season 2 arrive, and what all do we know? Let’s review….
HOW POPULAR WAS SEASON 1?
The short answer? VERY.
Squid Game Season 1 has for a while now stood as Netflix’s most popular title overall, with 265 million “views” (i.e. the number of hours viewed divided by the total run time).
Wednesday places No. 2 on the overall chart while reigning as Netflix’s most popular English TV title, with 252.1 million “views” of its 6.8-hour first season. Stranger Things Season 4 (140.7 million “views”), Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (115.6 million views) and Bridgerton Season 1 (113.3 million) round out Netflix’s overall Top 5.
Squid Game Season 1 also topped the all-encompassing Nielsen U.S. streaming ranking for multiple weeks, at times amassing more than 3 billion minutes viewed across its nine episodes.
OK, BUT WAS SEASON 1 ACCLAIMED?
Indeed.
Squid Game Season 1 racked up 14 total Emmy Award nominations. Among those nods, it was the first foreign language series to make the short list for Outstanding Drama.
Lee Jung-jae wound up winning for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama — the first actor in a non-English series to be crowned in that category — and series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk grabbed gold for best director for a drama. The show also scored Emmys for guest actress Lee Yoo-mi (as Sae-byeok’s friend Ji-Yeong), production design, stunt performance and visual effects.
Additionally, Season 1 earned three Screen Actors Guild Awards — including for Lee Jung-jae as well as Hoyeoin (who played Sae-byeok) — and a Golden Globe for Oh Yeong-su (as Oh Il-nam).
WHAT’S THE SEASON 2 STORYLINE?
Season 1 of Squid Game, series creator Hwang has said, was conceived as “an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life.”
Though details on Season 2 remain scarce, Hwang has said that it would follow — as the closing scene of the first finale suggested — Seong Gi-hun and his investigation of those behind the deadly, titular tournament.
Having decided in those final seconds of Season 1 to not reunite with his daughter who had moved to the States but stay put in Korea to exact some sort of revenge against the organizers of the deadly games he barely survived, Gi-hun in Season 2 will “do something for the world,” Hwang told the AP.
WHO’S RETURNING FOR SEASON 2?
In addition to Lee Jung-jae reprising his role as protagonist Seong Gi-hun, Season 2 will bring back Lee Byung-Hun (as In-ho aka the Front Man, seen above), Wi Ha-jun (as Hwang Jun-ho, the cop who posed as a guard to find his brother), and Gong Yoo (as the game’s recruiter).
WHO’S NEW FOR SEASON 2?
New for Squid Game Season 2 are:
Yim Si-Wan, a member of the South Korean boyband ZE:A (and its sub-group ZE:A Five) and an actor best known for the cable series Misaeng: Incomplete Life
Kang Ha-Neul, from South Korea’s Keoteunkol (Curtain Call), Insider and When the Camellia Blooms
Park Sung-Hoon, from The Glory, Into the Ring, Justice and My Only One
Yang Dong-Geun, from The Forbidden Marriage and Cheer Up
Park Gyu-young, from Netflix’s Sweet Home and the streamer’s upcoming Celebrity series
Jo Yu-ri, a former member of the South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One
Theater and musical vet Kang Ae-sim
Lee David, who had a supporting role in Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s film The Fortress
Lee Jin-uk, from Sweet Home and one of Hwang’s biggest films, Miss Granny
Singer Choi Seung-hyun, whose acting credits include Tazza: The Hidden Card and Commitment
Roh Jae-won, a relative newcomer whose film credits include Missing Yoon
Won Ji-an, from Season 1 of the Netflix series D.P.
No character details have been made available… yet.
WILL THE CREEPY GIANT DOLL BE BACK?
There has been no word about the towering and terrifying Young-hee putting in an encore appearance, but series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has promised to introduce “her” boyfriend, Cheol-su, in Season 2.
HOW MANY EPISODES IS SEASON 2?
Season 1 consisted of nine episodes, all written and directed by series creator Hwang, and whose run times spanned 32 to 63 minutes.
There has been no official word yet on the Season 2 episode count. But Hwang, who won an Emmy for directing Season 1’s “Red Light, Green Light” episode, will again direct all Season 2 episodes.
WHEN IS SEASON 2’S RELEASE DATE?
It was announced at the time of the cast’s first table read in late June 2023 that production on Squid Game Season 2 would start later in 2023, and series lead Lee Jung-jae has ventured that filming “will likely last for about 10 months,” just as Season 1 did.
Netflix confirmed in January that Season 2 in fact was on track for a 2024 release date.
TOO SOON TO ASK ABOUT SEASON 3…?
Maybe it isn’t…?
In December 2021, just months after Season 1 dropped, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) that he was in talks with Netflix about Season 2 “as well as Season 3″ — though come June 2022, he put the odds of a third season (or more) at just “50-50.”
Thus far, Netflix has only officially greenlit a second cycle.
OH, AND WHAT ABOUT THAT REALITY SHOW SPINOFF…?
Squid Game: The Challenge, a competition series based on the megahit Netflix drama, is due to premiere in November 2023.
In Squid Game: The Challenge, 456 players compete for $4.56 million by playing games inspired by the original series as well as some new ones, with the goal of avoiding elimination. (Thankfully, the losers won’t be killed, as they were in the original Squid Game!)
Watch a teaser trailer above.
Want scoop on Squid Game Season 2, or for any other TV show ? Email your question to InsideLine@tvline.com, and it may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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