For Everyone Frustrated By The Way Season 2 Of “Squid Game” Ends, Here’s What We Know About Season 3
MAJOR spoilers for Season 2 of Squid Game ahead. You’ve been warned!
Season 2 of Squid Game dropped on Netflix this week, three years after Season 1 took the world by storm.
This season, we follow protagonist and Season 1 champion Seong Gi-hun as he reenters the deadly games — only this time, in hopes of dismantling the organization and putting an end to things once and for all.
If, like me, you binged all seven episodes in one go, you might’ve been surprised by the somewhat abrupt way that Season 2 ended.
Again, massive spoilers ahead.
Gi-hun ends up leading a group of the players to rebel against the organisers of the games, seizing guns from the masked guards and shooting a bunch of them.
Prior to this, the original Front Man, In-ho, befriends Gi-hun after posing as Player 001 throughout the games. However, he fakes his death amid the uprising and sneaks off to resume his position behind his signature mask and cloak.
The subplot sees Detective Jun-ho attempting to find the mystery island where the games take place by traveling by boat with a crew of men led by Captain Park.
In Episode 7 — aka the final episode of Season 2 — we learn that the captain is actually not as innocent as he seems after he kills one of the crew members who catches him toying with the drone they’ve used to capture footage of their discoveries.
Season 2 ends with the heartbreaking murder of Gi-hun’s best friend, Jung-bae, who is shot by The Front Man in order to punish Gi-hun for leading the rebellion.
However, Season 2 concludes with no actual resolution to any of the big story arcs. For example, Gi-hun does not find out that Player 001 is actually the Front Man, and we do not see what happens on the boat after the aforementioned crew member is killed.
Reacting to the abrupt ending online, several Squid Game fans admitted that they were left disappointed.
“No way squid game season 2 was just seven episodes and then ended like that,” one person tweeted. “i just finished season 2 of squid game and what the actual fuck? what a cliffhanger..” said another.
“Worst part about this season was how abruptly it ends. Really feels like I just watched a Part 1, not a full season,” someone wrote on Reddit. “It was thrilling and well executed, but definitely didn’t feel like a complete season. No character or story arcs got wrapped up in the finale at all,” one more user said.
Well, for those confused by the finale, Squid Game director and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed exactly why he chose to end things the way he did.
Speaking with Variety last week, Hwang revealed that he initially wrote Seasons 2 and 3 as “one long story arc.” He shared, “I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.”
“And so I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third,” he explained.
Detailing why he chose to end Season 2 with Jung-bae’s brutal murder, Hwang said, “When you think about Gi-hun’s journey, I thought that that was an adequate moment to put a stop and give him a little bit of closure along that long story arc. And then from that moment on, in the third season, having that sense of huge guilt and sense of failure weighing heavily on him — how is Gi-hun going to carry on his mission? That’s the story that’ll further unfold.”
As for what else we can expect in Season 3, Hwang teased that we’re going to see Gi-hun at “a very critical crossroads.”
“What state is Gi-hun going to be in? And what will he choose to do? Will he continue on with the mission? Is he going to give up or persist? And so you’re going to meet our character Gi-hun at a very critical crossroads as we begin the third season. Gi-hun will not be the man he was in Season 2,” he said.
Hwang also noted that the sneaky “hidden clip” featured amid the credits after Episode 7 also teases what’s to come in Season 3.
“If you saw the hidden clip after the ending credits roll after the last episode of Season 2 — if you watch that clip, it’s going to give you a slight hint as to where Season 3 might take you. I think that’s all I can say, for now,” he said.
The clip in question — which features not one, but two giant “Red Light, Green Light” dolls — appears to confirm that the deadly games continue after the rebellion.
Moreover, Hwang previously revealed that Season 3 will be the last of the series and will follow the “fierce clash” between Gi-hun and In-ho’s “two worlds.”
Hwang also shared that Season 3 will be released in 2025, so it’s not too far away. In fact, the third season has already been filmed, and a launch date announcement is expected “soon.”
“At this point, anything I might say is going to be a spoiler, so I want to be cautious,” he said. “But what I can say is, after Season 2 launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon. I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year.”
