Ahead of the release of season two of highly-anticipated Korean drama series Squid Game, show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk opened up about what the audience can expect to see in season two of the hit dystopian thriller.
In a new interview, Hwang described how he approached the second season and the motivation behind Player 456 Gi-hun’s return to the game that nearly took his life.
South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae played Gi-hun in the first season and will reprise his role in the forthcoming seasons.
“Honestly when I was creating season one I didn’t plan in any detail that there would be a second season,” Hwang told The Hollywood Reporter at a For Your Consideration awards event in Los Angeles on Sunday.
“However, I did have something in mind that if there were to ever be a second season, I had this idea of what story I would tell; I thought it would be the story of Gi-hun turning away from where he was at the end of season one and going back into the games in order to put a stop to the game,”
He added that “throughout seasons two and three, it’s going to be about that very journey by Gi-hun that you’re going to be following, both physically and emotionally.”
Squid Game follows a group of cash-strapped contestants fighting to the death for a life-changing sum of money.
The official description for season two states: “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organisation proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”
The sequel series will arrive nearly three years after its 2021 nine-episode debut, which broke records for Netflix. It currently ranks as the most-watched season of television in the company’s history.
At a panel conversation held after a screening of the new season’s first episode, Hwang said: “Gi-hun has experienced too many things, witnessed too many deaths, for him to return to the way it was before, no matter how hard he tries. The way you see Gi-hun in season one and the state that you see him in in season two are very different.”
To describe season two in a nutshell, Hwang simply said: “Season two is crazy.”
It became the first non-English language drama series to receive nominations in several major categories at the Emmy Awards, including Best Drama. Lead star Lee Jung-jae became the first Korean to win the Best Actor award.
Hwang also became the first Asian director to win in the Outstanding Drama Series category and the first ever director to win for a non-English language series.
Season two will be followed by a third and final season arriving sometime in 2025.
In late October, it was also revealed that David Fincher was reportedly in talks with Netflix to develop an English-language adaptation of the show.
Season 2 of Squid Game will be released on Netflix on 26 December.
