Will there be season 2 of Squid Game? Have Netflix or its creator said something about it?
The breakout new Netflix dystopian series Squid Game by Hwang Dong-hyuk could be in for a second season to answer loose ends purposely left to explore.
It took Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk ten years to get someone to buy into his idea for a dystopian drama about people risking their lives for a lucrative payout. Less than a month after the release of season 1 on Netflix, enthusiastic fans are clamoring for a sequel.
The South Korean showrunner, although he originally didn’t have plans to make a season 2, he did leave some loose ends in the first season just in case he got the chance to explore them in a future follow-up season. However, the director notes that he is “personally kind of worried” after what it took to bring to reality his show, including losing six teeth during its production.
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“Squid Game” a golden ticket?
The new pop culture sensation out of South Korea, named after a traditional Korean children’s game, is a story about “losers” according to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. The story follows 456 people, all of whom have debts that they could never payoff, who compete in a series of children’s games in a competition for survival. The lone survivor of the six games over six days will take home a final cash prize of 45.6 billion won (over $37 million).
The contestants are lured into the Hunger Games-style competition when they receive a business card offering them a golden ticket out of their financial troubles. Upon accepting the offer, they are picked up, gassed and taken to a facility at a remote location on an island. The participants, unaware of what they have gotten into, soon find out just how costly their choice was.
Netflix and director open to making season 2 of Squid Game
Netflix says that nothing has been decided about a season 2 of the Squid Game but speaking to Vulture Netflix’s global TV head Bela Bajaria said it was up to the director’s schedule and how he wants to proceed. She also indicated that new writers could collaborate on any possible future season “We’re trying to figure out the right structure for him,” said Bajaria.
Writer and director of the show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, in an interview with CNN Film School said of a potential sophomore season that “there is nothing confirmed at the moment” but due to the enthusiasm around the show from fans that he is “really contemplating it.” He had the idea for the show over a decade ago but there was no interest as it was “too distanced from reality.” But nowadays people tell him that they would play the game if it existed or believe that the game must exist for real somewhere. In one way he finds that sad that the world has become suited to his dystopian drama.
The plotline of a future season of Squid Game
Hwang Dong-hyuk intentionally left some questions unanswered in season 1 that could be explored if he were to have the chance to make a follow-up season. He mentions two in particular; why one of the characters was carrying “Ttakji”, paper squares used in a game similar to “Pogs”, and to explore the story of the Front Man, the mysterious masked overseer of the games. There is also the question of the season finale cliffhanger.
One of the stories he would like to take up in a second season is that of the Front Man, who was a former winner of Squid Game and a former detective named Jun-Ho. He told the Sunday Times "I think the issue with police officers is not just an issue in Korea.” He wants to explore the character’s unexplained past.
As for the cliffhanger at the end, warning spoiler alert...
The show centers on Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, a gambling addict who due to his debts has loan sharks coming after him. He also goes on to win the game but instead of taking the money and running, vows to take down Squid Game exposing the criminal organization behind the games providing entertainment for the ultra-wealthy.