Lee Jung-jae shares teasers and spoiler tips

During a recent appearance at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonLee Jung-jae shared a few spoiler-free tips to set the stage for the highly anticipated second season Play octopus. When the show returns to Netflix on December 26, Player 456 won’t be surrounded by many familiar faces — he’s back in the game, but it’s not an all-star competition.

“First of all, a lot of people will be killed,” Lee said. It’s the most obvious plot point for such a brutal show. The other revelations he made go deeper into the show’s history. Player 465, he said, will not be competing against other past winners of the game. But the new season will see the return of the all-seeing Young-hee or the doll. What Lee won’t reveal, however, is whether his character will be the new front man.

“Because Season 1 was so well-loved, we felt the pressure of whether Season 2 would be as well-loved,” Lee said. “But our story has become more diverse, deeper, with a very clear theme. So I don’t know if I can say it’s going to be as successful, but what I can say is that it’s just as well made.”

Play octopus premiered more than three years ago, becoming the most-watched series in Netflix history. The show is already set for a third season to premiere in 2025. “It took 12 years to bring the first season of Play octopus to life last year,” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said when announcing the second season. “But it took 12 days Play octopus to become the most popular Netflix series of all time.”

Last month, Hwang revealed that he originally had no plans for the show to extend beyond its first season. But he ultimately felt the story wasn’t complete — and the show that became the global success we know it as today wasn’t reflected in his earnings. “I didn’t earn much,” he told me BBC. “So doing the second series will also help compensate me for the success of the first.”

For Lee, the show’s success earned him his first Emmy Award in 2022. The win for Best Actor in a Drama marked the first time an Asian actor has ever been awarded in the category. Hwang was awarded in the Outstanding Direction for a Drama Series category.

“That night, because director Hwang and I both won, it felt doubly surreal,” Lee told Fallon. “Even now, just thinking about it, my heart is breaking. It’s hard to put into words. It was a really amazing night. It was unimaginable.”