Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk's Netflix series about hard-up people competing in deadly games in hopes of winning a grand prize, was an absolute smash hit when the first season dropped on Netflix in 2021. With 1.65 billion views in the first month after release, it's officially the most popular series in the history of the streamer.
It's taken a while to get to season 2, but it's finally happening. A bunch of new episodes will drop on December 26, with a third and final season to follow in 2025. We have had to wait a few years for the follow-up (with that strange Squid Game reality show to entertain us in the meantime), but Netflix is making up for it by giving us a one-two punch of Squid Game goodness this year and next.
Netflix is getting the hype train rolling by releasing the first teaser for season 2, which you can watch above. Season 1 ended with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the only survivor and big winner of the most recent squid games, vowing revenge on the shady coterie of billionaires behind this sick stunt, the people who conspire to get poor people to fight to the death in front of them for their entertainment. Last we saw Seong Gi-hun, he was on the move with a head of freshly dyed, bright orange hair.
According to Deadline, the second season of Squid Game will take place three years after the first. Seong Gi-hun has managed to reenter the Squid Games and will meet a whole new crop of indebted contestants. Newcomers include Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Park Sung-hoon, Jo Yu-ri, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Lee Jin-uk, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won and Won Ji-an. We don't see any of their faces in the teaser up top, but I imagine they'll be donning the show's signature green jacket and pants and stepping into the games. Seong Gi-hun is assigned the same number he was in the first season, at least in the trailer: 456.
My guess is that Seong Gi-hun's plan is to infiltrate the games and get the contestants to rise up against the organizers, which would basically make Squid Game season 2 the Catching Fire to season 1's The Hunger Games. And hey, Catching Fire is the best of the three Hunger Games books, so hopefully the second season of Squid Game will be spectacular!
After the first season of Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk became the first Asian person to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series, while Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian man to win Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. There will be a ton of eyes on the show come December. We're expecting a lot!
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