The third season of Squid Game will drop at the end of this month, bringing to an end the most successful series in the history of Netflix. Will Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) get out of the Squid Games alive? Will he succeed in bringing down the organization from within? We'll find out in a few weeks.
To hear creator Hwang Dong-hyuk tell it, the third season will drill down on the conflict between Seong Gi-hun and the Front Man, a former winner who's now running the games. “In Season 2, after the rebellion, Seong Gi-hun loses most of his allies and even his closest friend," Hwang Dong-hyuk said at a press conference, per The Korea Times. "The story is about how Gi-hun, after hitting rock bottom with guilt and despair, manages to rise again. If you focus on the confrontation between Gi-hun and the Front Man — their differing beliefs about humanity — I think you’ll find it interesting."
Actor Lee Byung-hun, who plays the Front Man, also weighed in. “The Front Man is the one who devises a plan to destroy everything Gi-hun believes in, especially his faith in humanity," he said. "If Seasons 2 and 3 form one continuous narrative, then Season 3 is the climax — a story that’s bound to hit hard. It will be a story of true confrontation."
I enjoyed the second season of Squid Game, although personally I was hoping for a story that was a little more abstract, rather than one that centered the conflict between these two men. The scariest thing about the first season, to me, was that Seong Gi-hun and the other contestants were caught in a system that was bigger than any one person, which made it much harder to take down.
That said, Hwang Dong-hyuk still definitely has bigger themes on his mind. “If we talk about the many side effects of capitalist society, it’s the endless despair and frustration that comes from excessive competition and the constant stimulation of human desire," said the show's creator. "Within that, I wanted to ask questions like 'Can we create a better world? Can we pass on sustainable happiness to future generations?’"
However you feel about the conflicts to come, you'll pick up that all of these guys are talking as though this is the end for the show. And Hwang Dong-hyuk did indeed confirm that there are no plans for a fourth season, although he didn't shut the door and lock it behind him. “After watching Season 3, some may think there’s room for a Season 4, while others may feel there’s no need for one,” he said.
The truth is that the Squid Game universe may be too successful for Netflix to abandon it. We've heard that director David Fincher may be working on an English-language spinoff set elsewhere in the world, which means that the Squid Games are being held on a global scale. That means it may be impossible for Seong Gi-hun to bring down the games from within, since he's stuck in South Korea while other versions of the games are running everywhere.
Hwang Dong-hyuk is also open to the idea of a spinoff, this time focused on what the characters from the original Squid Game show were doing between the first and second seasons. I think he'll take a break after season 3, though; working on this show has stressed him out to the point where he's lost multiple teeth, so he'll probably want to pivot. “Rather than getting swept up in the glitter of success, I intend to hold onto the lessons and emotions I experienced over these six years as I prepare for my next project,” he said at the press conference.
Whatever the longterm future of Squid Game, the third and final season of the base show drops on Netflix on June 27.
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