Squid Game’s Director Just Hinted at When Season 2 Will Be Out—& What It Could Be About
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Squid Game is officially Netflix’s most-watched original series yet, and all this success has led to an obvious question: Will there be a Squid Game season 2?
Fans have been rallying for Squid Game season 2 ever since the show’s premiere in September 2021. The South Korean series, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, is a survival drama featuring a group of 456 cash-strapped citizens who are lured into a deadly competition in hopes of winning a massive prize of 45.6 billion won (or 38.7 million US dollars.) The group competes in a series of children’s games like red-light, green-light—but unlike playing at recess, viewers soon realize that the consequences for losing are decidedly life-threatening.
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Following its release on September 17, Squid Game quickly soared to the top of Netflix’s popularity charts. Ted Sarandos—co-CEO of Netflix—revealed during the 2021 Code Conference in Los Angeles that Squid Game was already on track to be Netflix’s most-watched series in any language just days after its premiere. “[Squid Game will] definitely be our biggest non-English-language show in the world,” he said. “[There’s] a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever.”
Of course, it didn’t take long after that for Squid Game to live up to the hype. On October 13, Netflix announced that the show was officially its most-watched original series, overtaking the previous record held by 2020’s Shonda Rhimes-produced hit, Bridgerton. All this success has made it seem like Squid Game season 2 is simply an inevitability at this point—but for now, let’s take a look at everything we know about Squid Game season 2 so far.
Is Squid Game season 2 confirmed?
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As of now, Netflix has not yet confirmed if fans can expect to see Squid Game season 2—but that doesn’t mean they’re ruling it out. Netflix’s Global TV Chief, Bela Bajaria, was reportedly “upbeat” about the future of the show during an interview with Vulture, though she noted how the opportunity to order Squid Game season 2 depends on the series’ creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk. “He has a film and other things he’s working on,” Bajaria said at the time. “We’re trying to figure out the right structure for him.”
Hwang, for his part, initially seemed apprehensive about a possible Squid Game season 2 after spending the better part of the last decade working on writing and pitching the first season to networks. But given the overwhelmingly positive response to his show and “pressure” from fans, Hwang admitted that he’s considering Squid Game season 2 after all.
“I’m getting a lot of pressure on Season 2,” Hwang said in an interview IndieWire. “I think I do have the obligation to explain [the ending] to the fans and I’m thinking about Season 2, but at the time, I was so tired after finishing Season 1, I couldn’t really think of Season 2. But now that it’s become such a big hit, people would hate me if I don’t make a Season 2, so I feel a lot of pressure and think I’d have to. The big success of Season 1 is a big reward to me, but at the same time it’s given me a lot of pressure.”
When is Squid Game season 2’s release date?
While there’s nothing set in stone yet, it sounds like fans may have to wait for quite some time for Squid Game’s season 2 release date. According to Variety, Squid Game‘s director is currently busy on other projects—including a draft of an intergenerational war film that is tentatively titled KO Club, short for “Killing Old Men Club.”
Hwang himself admitted to the publication that he doesn’t have “well-developed plans” for Squid Game season 2, and he may want to return to feature films before committing to a Squid Game sequel. “It is quite tiring just thinking about it,” he told the site on September 24. “But if I were to do it, I would certainly not do it alone. I’d consider using a writers’ room and would want multiple experienced directors.”
What is Squid Game season 2 about?
As a refresher, Squid Game season 1 ended on a major cliffhanger which—spoiler alert—saw the show’s main character, Gi-hun, winning the massive cash prize and finding out the true identity of the mastermind running the game. Gi-hun prepares to board a plane to Los Angeles to reunite with his daughter, but decides at the last minute not to go to the States. Instead, he makes a call and tells the person on the other end of the line that he is going to track them down. The implication seems to be that Gi-hun will return for Squid Game season 2 to avenge the deaths of his fellow competitors.
According to director Hwang, he originally intended this moment to be one of closure—but there is potential to take it further. “It’s true that season one ended in an open-ended way, but I actually thought that this could be good closure for the whole story too,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Season one ends with Gi-hun turning back and not getting on the plane to the States. And that was, in fact, my way of communicating the message that you should not be dragged along by the competitive flow of society, but that you should start thinking about who has created the whole system—and whether there is some potential for you to turn back and face it.”
“So it’s not necessarily Gi-hun turning back to get revenge,” Hwang added. “It could actually be interpreted as him making a very on the spot eye contact with what is truly going on in the bigger picture. So I thought that might be a good simple, but ambiguous, way to end the story for Gi-hun.”
Squid Game’s director did admit, however, that “there are some other stories in the series that have not been addressed” in season 1. “For example, the story of the police officer and the story of his brother, The Front Man,” he told THR. “So if I end up creating season two, I’d like to explore that storyline—what is going on between those two brothers?”
Hwang also expressed an interest in “the story of that recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode,” along with Gi-hun’s cryptic ending. “Of course, we could go with Gi-hun’s story as he turns back, and explore more about how he’s going to navigate through his reckoning with the people who are designing the games,” Hwang said.
Who is in the Squid Game season 2 cast?
If there’s one thing that’s clear about Squid Game season 2, it’s who won’t be joining the cast. The first season of the South Korean survival drama saw most of its characters being killed off, which only leaves a few recognizable faces left for Squid Game season 2 (assuming that the second season avoids flashbacks with the deceased characters, of course).
As of now, here’s who fans can expect to see in the Squid Game season 2 cast: Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man, Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho, Park Hye-jin as Cho Sang-Woo’s mother and Park Si-wan as Kang Cheol.
Squid Game is available to stream on Netflix.
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