Squid Game Season 2 Is Official—Here's What We Know About Its Release Date, Cast, Plot and More
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Squid Game was arguably the biggest TV series of 2021, and for good reason.
Netflix's dystopian capitalist allegory transcended language barriers to move all of us to tears and horrify many into realizing just how close to home its themes of poverty, especially related to healthcare, could hit.
Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed the series on his own, explained the appeal in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"I wanted to create a story that is very entertaining—something really fun to watch," he said. "I mean, it may be ironic for me to say that because there are some terrible atrocities that happen in the story, but I really wanted to create a story that will be immersive. And I wanted the viewers who watch Squid Game to start questioning themselves: How am I living my life? Who am I among these characters, and what kind of world am I living in? I wanted these questions to be asked."
He added, "As you start watching, I want you to think, 'What kind of story is this? This is all too surreal.' But then as you watch more, you will get attached to the characters and start cheering for some of them, and hating others. And then eventually, you should have the experience of connecting it all to the real world that we're living in. In that way, you'll be able to draw some of the messages from the series."
Of course, the Season 1 ending (more on that below!) left some room for more stories to be told in a second season—but will we actually get more episodes of this huge hit? Here's everything we know so far about Squid Game Season 2, but beware: There are major spoilers for Squid Game Season 1 ahead!
Will there be a Season 2 of Squid Game?
Back in September 2021 when the series debuted, it seemed unclear whether we'd get a Squid Game Season 2 after Dong-hyuk told Variety, "I don't have well-developed plans for Squid Game 2... It is quite tiring just thinking about it. 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."
At the same time, Netflix made it clear that they'd love to have Dong-hyuk back for another season. The streamer's global TV head, Bela Bajaria, told Vulture, "He has a film and other things he’s working on. We're trying to figure out the right structure for him."
Dong-hyuk explained, "I almost feel like you leave us no choice. There’s been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season. It’s in my head right now. I’m in the planning process currently."
In January 2022, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer TedSarandos made the news official. When asked if there would be a second season of Squid Game, Sarandos gushed to Variety, "Absolutely. The Squid Game universe has just begun."
And then, in June 2022, Netflix made it official official.
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How many seasons is Squid Game?
Take two! As noted above, Dong-hyuk and Sarandos have both confirmed that Season 2 is in the works. In December 2021, Dong-hyuk told The Korea Times that he was in talks with Netflix for a third season of the series as well.
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Who is in the Squid Game Season 2 cast?
Because Squid Game ended with most of the cast dead except for Seong Gi-hun, Hwang Jun-ho, and Hwang In-ho—and that wicked recruiter—the returning cast members may be limited to Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-Joon, Lee Byung-hun and Gong Yoo.
What is the plot of Squid Game Season 2?
Dong-hyuk dropped a major Squid Game Season 2 spoiler when he told the AP, "I will promise you this, Gi-hun will be back and he’ll do something for the world."
A month or so before that, he floated a totally different idea to The Hollywood Reporter: Crowdsourcing the plot!
"The pressure on me is huge now, with such a big audience waiting for a Season 2. Because of all that pressure, I haven't decided yet whether or not I should do another season," he admitted. "But if you look at it in a positive way, because so many people loved season one and are expecting good things for season two, there are people everywhere in the world offering their opinions about where the show should go. I could actually pull ideas from fans all around the world to create the next season."
He also said he'd like to explore the relationship between Hwang Jun-ho and Hwang In-ho, as their ending was left ambiguous, but he didn't stop there.
"I could also go into 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," he added. "And, 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. So, I don't know yet, but I'll just say there are a lot of possibilities out there for Season 2 storylines."
One theme would likely be Gi-hun's humanity, Dong-hyuk told Entertainment Weeklyin December 2021.
"If there were to be a season 2, in the first season that we saw Gi-hun is a character whose humanity is shown through or exposed in certain situations," he said. "In other words, his humanity is shown through a very passive manner. But I would think that in the second season, what he has learned from the games and his experience in the first season, they will all be put to use in a more active manner."
When is the Squid Game Season 2 release date?
Dong-hyuk told the AP not to expect Season 2 anytime soon. "I do think it’s too early to say when and how that’s going to happen," he said.
It's probably safe to assume that the very earliest we'd see it is 2024: Squid Game took two years to produce and started in 2019, so even if they started production on Season 2 right now, we'd be looking at a late 2024 release.
What does the ending of Squid Game Season 1 mean?
Dong-hyuk explained the ending of Squid Game, when Gi-hun doesn't get on the plane to the United States, was deliberate.
"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," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "So it's not necessarily Gi-hun turning back to get revenge. 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."
As for the overarching theme of the show, Dong-hyuk is disillusioned with the economic disparities brought on by largely capitalist societies (especially those without universal healthcare). "These days we are, in fact, living in a deeply unfair and economically challenging world," he said. "Especially after the pandemic. I mean, there is more inequality, more severe competition and more people are being pushed to the edge of their livelihoods. Currently, I would say that more than 90 percent of people across the world will be able to somehow connect and empathize with the plight of the characters that are portrayed in the series. More than anything else, that's probably why the series was such a big success worldwide."
Is Squid Game based on a true story?
Squid Game isn't directly based on a true story (thank goodness), but Dong-hyuk drew on real-life themes of poverty and class struggles, as well as events and people in his own life, for the show. See more on that below.
What is Squid Game based on?
Dong-hyuk revealed that he had a rejected script he'd tried to shop around in 2008, and it hurt him significantly financially. Passing the time, he told The Hollywood Reporter, "I read a lot of comic books revolving around surviving death games—manga like Liar Game, Kaiji and Battle Royale. And well, I read some stories about these indebted people entering into these life-and-death games, and that became really immersive for me because I was struggling financially myself. I was even thinking that I would love to join a game like that, if it existed, to make a bunch of cash and get out of this terrible situation. And then that got me thinking, 'Well, I'm a director. Why don't I just make a movie with this kind of storyline?' So that's how it all got started. I decided that I wanted to create a Korean survival game piece in my own way. That's how Squid Game was initially conceived in 2008, and then I wrote a script for a feature-length film version throughout 2009."
Dong-hyuk also revealed that many of the main characters (Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo, and Il-nam) were named after his own real-life friends, as were Hwang Jun-ho and Hwang In-ho, who are brothers in real life as well as onscreen.
Has Squid Game won any awards?
You bet! Squid Game
In September 2022, it became a massive hit with awards voters, too. The Korean series solidified its place in the TV history books when it won six Emmy Awards, including Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Lee Jung-jae and Directing for a Drama Series for Hwang Dong-hyuk, in the process becoming the first show not in English to win those awards.
Is Squid Game a movie?
Squid Game is a TV series on Netflix—although, as noted above, Dong-hyuk originally conceived of the story as a feature film.
Is Squid Game the most popular show ever?
Squid Game is closing in on M*A*S*H as the most popular show ever: The classic Vietnam War-themed sitcom's series finale is, so far, the only broadcast TV show to compete with several Super Bowls in terms of viewership. This was pre-streaming, so the metrics are unclear as to how exactly the two shows would compete if compared head-to-head today.
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Is Squid Game the most-watched Netflix show?
As of late 2022, Netflix that Squid Game is its most-watched series of all time. Bajaria explained to Vulture that the show's popularity was organic, and that viewers "tweeted and TikToked about it, and it just grew through word of mouth. People hear about it, people talk about it, people love it, and there’s a very social aspect to that, which does help grow the show outside of what we do."
She added that they expected the show to do well in South Korea, but didn't expect it to blow up globally the way that it did.
"If we're going to have members in dozens of countries, we want programming that they love and that resonates with them," she said. "They see themselves represented, they see their stories. If something travels globally, it means our members really enjoyed watching something they may not have seen before. But the local impact is the most important thing."
How many people watched Squid Game Season 1?
According to a Netflix letter to investors in October 2021, 142 million households and counting have watched Squid Game. Forbes has also reported that when you count viewership in terms of the number of minutes streamed, Squid Game likewise blows away the competition at nearly 2 billion minutes clocked (just for one week!).
How many hours did people watch Squid Game in the first 28 days?
People spent a jaw-dropping 1.7 billion hours watching Squid Game in the first 28 days after its release.
Did more people watch Squid Game Season 1 or Stranger Things Season 4?
Squid Game still holds the record of most views in the first 28 days. Let's be clear: Both shows did gangbusters for Netflix. But when the final numbers are compared Stranger Things Season 4 collected 1.4 billion hours viewed, compared to Squid Game's 1.7 billion hours.
How much money did Squid Game Season 1 make?
According to an internal Netflix memo obtained by Bloomberg, Squid Game generated a whopping $891 million in "impact value" for the streaming service. The show cost around $20 million to make, which means it generated a massive $871 million in revenue for the brand.
Is there a trailer for Squid Game Season 2?
Not a trailer per se, but in September 2022, Dong-hyuk revealed a previously unreleased clip from Season 1. Enjoy!
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