Just over 3 years after Squid Game became a global phenomenon — sweeping the Emmys and becoming Netflix's most popular series ever — the Korean drama is back with over 450 new contestants and new, brutal games.
The premise of Squid Game is simple. A mysterious organization sets up a series of games on a secret island. The contestants are all cash-strapped and in serious debt they're desperate to get out of. With a potential prize worth billions of dollars, they can't say no to participating in the games, even if the consequence for losing any of the games is death.
In season 1, Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae) is the last man standing, taking home the enormous cash prize. However, he feels guilty, and in the final moment of the season decides to seek vengeance against whoever is running these sick games. Season 2 begins three years later, where Gi-Hun is ardently searching for the hosts of the games. As we see in the trailer, he eventually somehow finds himself back in the competition.
“Because of that emotional change in Season 1, the types of emotions that he feels when he meets the other players is very different from what he feels when he meets other participants in Season 2,” Jung-Jae told Deadline. “In Season 2, I realized that I was on set receiving and accepting others’ emotions first, and paying more attention to that, so I thought that was the biggest difference.”
As for the new set of games, director Hwang Dong-Hyuk wanted to keep them "very simple." While we do not know what they entail, the trailer confirms the return of season 1's iconic opening game Red Light, Green Light. “The games are one of the biggest changes as well as the characters because, except for Gi-Hun, all of the characters that play the games are new so you’re going to be able to see more endearing characters that you end up rooting for,” Hwang explained.
Hwang also weighed in on the political side of the series. “The one thing that I had most in mind was this current world and how it makes all of us divided, it separates us from the other group, creates different sides to become hostile," he said.
"There are so many things that divide us today, whether it’s race, religion, language, the haves and the have nots, the generational divisions, and recently, with the very important vote that you have this week, we look at the political division, the left against the right, the conservatives against the progressives, and things like this lead to such a division where it almost seems like there is this line that absolutely cannot be crossed.""
The political side is amped up in season 2, which sees the contestants hold a vote on whether to continue the games after each round. In the first season, they only made that vote once, after the first game.
Meet the cast of Squid Game season 2!
As for the new characters, there's a mother and son duo, as well as the arrival of South Korean rapper Choi Seung-hyun, who plays retired rapper Thanos. There's more than a few interesting personalities in the mix. Netflix recently released an introductory video all about the new contestants. Check it out:
Squid Game season 2 lands December 26 on Netflix. Not long to go now, folks!
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