Every question you have about the return of the blood-soaked South Korean survival saga, answered.
In a nutshell:
Squid Game Season 2 will feature more cash-strapped Koreans being lured into playing a series of deadly children’s games in the hopes of becoming billionaires.
Who from Squid Game Season 1 will return for Season 2?
The first season of Squid Game became a global phenomenon thanks to its gasp-inducing set pieces and ingenious twists, but much of the credit must also go to its impressive ensemble cast: Lee Jung-jae as the lovable gambling addict and everyman Seong Gi-hun; Hoyeon Jung as enigmatic North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok; Park Hae-soo as steely businessman Cho Sang-woo; Anupam Tripathi as desperate migrant worker Ali Abdul; and O Yeong-su as the elderly Oh Il-nam, later revealed to be the mastermind behind the brutal contest.
As the ninth and final episode ended—spoiler alert—with the demise of all of the players with the exception of Gi-hun, viewers had assumed that he’d be one of the few characters from Season 1 to return for Season 2. On June 12, 2022, this was confirmed by Netflix through a letter to fans from the show’s creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk that was released on social media. He added that the Front Man, the terrifying overseer of the games played by Lee Byung-hun, would also return and that “the man in the suit with ddakji might be back”—a reference to the mysterious recruiter embodied by Gong Yoo. The streamer later added that Wi Ha-joon’s Hwang Jun-ho, the detective whose fate was unknown after he was shot and fell from a cliff, would be back, too.
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Who will be joining the cast for Squid Game Season 2?
In June 2023, Netflix announced that 12 new cast members would be joining the ensemble: Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Park Gyu-young, Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Lee Jin-uk, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, and Won Ji-an. Hwang has also said that the audience will “be introduced to Young-hee’s boyfriend, Cheol-su.” Young-hee is better known to fans as the creepy motion-sensing doll from “Red Light, Green Light” who shoots the contestants who fail to freeze during the first game. She was inspired by a character of the same name, a schoolgirl with pigtails, who appeared on the covers of Korean textbooks in the ’70s and ’80s. She was often seen alongside Cheol-su, a cherubic schoolboy with a bowl cut, who, in the disturbing world of the show, is sure to be just as bloodthirsty as his partner.
What will be the plot of Squid Game Season 2?
Plot details are being kept carefully under wraps, though the news that Cheol-su will be joining Young-hee suggests that there will be a whole new set of perilous games for a new set of hopefuls to play. It’s also worth remembering that Season 1 ended with Gi-hun traveling to the airport, en route to Los Angeles to see his daughter, when he, once again, spotted the recruiter with ddakji. Having snagged one of his invitation cards, he called the number on it and asked the Front Man how he could continue exploiting vulnerable people. The latter told him to get on the plane, but Gi-hun instead ended the call and turned around. Will he be able to track down the Front Man and end the games for good? And will he ever make it back to his daughter? Those are just two of the countless questions we’re hoping will be answered in Season 2.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
Hwang, when asked about season two by The Hollywood Reporter in August 2022, said: “I’ve seen many reactions from people about the show, but I don’t want to make season two as a response to those reactions. The philosophies I put in season one all naturally extend to season two. Instead of trying to meet the expectations of viewers, I just thought about the last moment when Gi-hun turned away from boarding the plane, and I thought about what he will do next. There will naturally be a flow of events that will lead all the way to the end of the season. I can’t share any details yet, but you know that Seong Gi-hun has become a totally new person by the end of season one, so season two is going to be about what that new Gi-hun is going to do and how things will unfold with this new kind of character.”
Is there a trailer for Squid Game season 2?
Not yet, though Netflix has released a chilling 10-second teaser featuring the voice and flashing eye of the aforementioned Young-hee. Watch it below.
