Death Explained, Season 3 Plans, Credits Scene

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from the “Squid Game” season 2 finale, now streaming on Netflix.

The game is over – for now. “Squid Game” Season 2 ended its seventh and final episode with the brutal murder of Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) right before his eyes. Jung-bae is shot and killed by Squid Game supervisor The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) after Gi-hun leads a rebellion of the players in the current game.

While the death itself is shocking and horrifying and horrifying, it is made even more gruesome for the viewer than Gi-hun because, unlike our hero, the audience knows The Front Man’s true identity: he is In-ho, a former winner of the Squid Game who now works as a head guard.

In-ho has used this game to pose as Player 001 (who goes by the name Young-il) and grown close to Gi-hun and Jung-bae to gain their trust and pretend to be part of their cause and rebellion , only to don his Front Man mask again at the end and kill Jung-bae to punish Gi-hun.

With one more season to go, “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk broke the news for the season 2 finale Black — including the mid-credits scene teasing an unknown version of the Squid Game with new male and female versions of the giant, deadly laser-eyed “Red Light, Green Light” dolls — and what he has planned for Season 3 and the series finale.

“Squid Game” Season 2 ends on a massive cliffhanger where The Front Man (In-ho/Young-il, unbeknownst to Gi-hun) kills Jung-bae right in front of Gi-hun, leaving Gi-hun to scream horror as the pink guards hold him down and force him to watch his friend bleed out. Why did you decide to end the season here?

When I first wrote the story of seasons 2 and 3, it was a long story arc. And I had originally planned to write this story over a span of about eight to nine episodes, but by the time I finished the story, it was over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to fit into a single season. And then I wanted to have an appropriate point where I could end like a second season and then move on to the third. And looking at Gi-hun’s story, all his attempts that he makes to stop the game fail: the first one is to get these mercenaries and try to plant a tracking device; the second attempt to persuade people to vote so that they can leave the game will also fail; and then the third and final attempt to bring people together and cause the rebellion, it all fails as well.

So all his failures lead to this heavy, heavy crisis of having to lose his very best friend, Jung-bae, at the hands of The Front Man. And when you think about Gi-hun’s journey, I thought it was an appropriate moment to stop and give him a little bit of closure along the long story arc. And so from that moment on, in the third season, with that sense of immense guilt and sense of failure weighing heavily on him – how is Gi-hun going to continue her mission? It is the story that will unfold further.

When can we expect season 3 to premiere, and what can you tease about the storyline for the show’s final episode?

At this point, anything I say will be a spoiler, so I’ll be careful. But what I can say is, after season 2 launches, I think we’ll soon announce the launch date for season 3. I’d probably expect it to launch around summer or fall of next year. But as for the story in the third season, where Gi-hun has lost everything, including his best friend, and all his attempts have failed, now, how will he be? What state will Gi-hun be in? And what will he choose to do? Will he continue with the mission? Will he give up or keep going? And then you will meet our character Gi-hun at a very critical crossroads as we begin the third season. Gi-hun won’t be the man he was in season 2.

With Gi-hun and a good number of other players rebelling against The Front Man and the pink guards in Season 2, will the show’s format change in Season 3? How will they be able to return to the regularly scheduled Squid Game now that so many of the players have disrupted the system?

If you watched the hidden clip after the closing credits rolled after the last episode of Season 2 – watching that clip will give you a little hint of where Season 3 might take you. I think that’s all I can say for now.

Which of the Season 2 games did you find most satisfying to shoot and why?

I would say pentathlon. Not only was it the most challenging thing to shoot, but I think after we finished filming it, I enjoyed watching it myself the most. And especially because within one game round you get five smaller games. And like in Season 1, I wanted to showcase these actual children’s games that Koreans grew up playing, especially the ones that I grew up playing myself. With the way I got to show the world five different games in a single round, I’d say the pentathlon was probably the most satisfying to shoot.

What will you tease about the rest of the series?

With each episode it gets better. With each season it gets better and a more extended story, more intense story and definitely more entertaining. So just make sure you watch it till the end!

This interview has been edited and condensed.