This interview includes major spoilers for Squid Game season 3. Since its initial debut in September 2021, Squid Game has become more than a series—it’s a full-blown aesthetic. Now, you'd be hard-pressed not to look at a teal-green tracksuit without thinking of the devastating death-game K-drama, which imbues traditional Korean children’s games with bleak social commentary on inequality, desperation, and depravity.
Its colorful, labyrinthine set is also part of its signature, helmed by production designer Chae Kyoung-sun. Throughout the three-season run of Netflix’s most-viewed series ever, she collaborated with writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk on the dystopian nightmare, taking home an Emmy and two Art Directors Guild Awards for her work on the show’s sensational game arenas and stylized facilities. To create an imposing conclusion in the third and final season, Chae reflected on the narrative motifs that have threaded through the entire series, culminating in the inevitable end of deadbeat-turned-victor Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) journey.
