Death Explained, Season 3 Plans, Credit Scene

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

Game over – for now. Season 2 of “Squid Game” concluded 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 dead by Squid Game supervisor The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) after Gi-hun leads an uprising of the players in the current game.

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

In-ho posed as Player 001 (named Young-il) during this game and bonded with Gi-hun and Jung-bae to gain their trust and pretend he was part of their cause and rebellion , and then put on his. Front Man eventually masks again and kills Jung-bae to punish Gi-hun.

With one season left, ‘Squid Game’ creator Hwang Dong-hyuk aborted the season 2 finale for Variety – including the mid-credits scene that teases an unknown version of the Squid Game with new male and female versions of the giant, deadly “Red Light, Green Light” dolls with laser eyes – and what he has planned for Season 3 and the series final.

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

When I first wrote the story of seasons 2 and 3, it was one long storyline. And I originally planned to write this story over a period of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story it ended up being over ten episodes, which I thought was too long to fit into one season contain. And so I wanted to have a sufficient point where I could wrap up a second season and then move on to the third. And if you look at Gi-hun’s story, all the attempts he makes to stop the game: the first is grabbing these mercenaries and trying to plant a tracking device, which fails; the second attempt to convince people to vote so they can leave the game also fails; and then the third and final attempt to bring people together and cause the uprising, everything also fails.

So all his failures lead to this big, big crisis where he has 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 this was an opportune time to put a stop to it and give him a little closure to that long storyline. And from then on, in the third season, with that sense of enormous guilt and the feeling of failure weighing heavily on him – how will Gi-hun continue his mission? That is the story that will continue to unfold.

When can we expect season 3 to premiere and what can you share about the storyline of the series’ final episodes?

At this point, anything I say will be a spoiler, so I want to be careful. But what I can say is that after the launch of Season 2, we will soon announce the launch date for Season 3. I probably expect this to launch around summer or fall next year. But as for the third season storyline, where Gi-hun has lost everything, including his best friend, and all his attempts fail, now it’s: what will he be like? 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 persevere? And so you’re going to meet our character Gi-hun at a very crucial crossroads at the beginning of the third season. Gi-hun won’t be the man he was in season 2.

Will the format of the show change in Season 3, now that Gi-hun and much of the other players have rebelled against The Front Man and Pink Guards? How can they go back to the regularly scheduled Squid Game now that so many players have disrupted the system?

If you saw the hidden clip after the credits roll after the final episode of Season 2, watching that clip will give you a little hint as to 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 film and why?

I would say the pentathlon. Not only was it the most challenging to shoot, but I think after we finished filming it was the thing I enjoyed watching it the most. And especially because you get five smaller games within one game round. And just like in season 1, I wanted to show these real childhood games that Korean people played, especially the games that I played myself. With the way I was able to show the world five different games in one round, I’d say the pentathlon was probably the most satisfying to shoot.

What do you want to tease about the rest of the series?

It gets better with every episode. With each season it gets better and the story becomes more extensive, more intense and certainly more fun. So make sure you watch it until the end!

This interview has been edited and condensed.