Squid Game season 2


The second season of South Korean dystopian survival thriller television series Squid Game, marketed as Squid Game 2 and created by writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, was released on Netflix on December 26, 2024.
Four days after its premiere, the second season had set new streaming records with 68 million views, exceeding the highest premiere viewership for Netflix held by the first season of Wednesday at 50.1 million views during its premiere week.
According to Netflix, the season ranked at No. 1 in 92 countries. It garnered positive reviews from critics. A third and final season, which was filmed back-to-back with the second season, was released on June 27, 2025.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Numbers in parentheses denote the character's assigned player number in the Squid Game universe unless otherwise specified.

Main cast

Development

In late October 2021, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk stated he was in discussions with Netflix regarding a second season. He further stated in December 2021 that he was also discussing a third season with Netflix. Hwang wanted to produce another film first, as well as secure a contract with Netflix to release additional films he may create alongside further Squid Game seasons, so as to avoid becoming known only for Squid Game. Hwang confirmed that he had begun conceptualization work on a second season during a press event in November 2021, with plans to bring back Lee Jung-jae to reprise his role of Gi-hun. Netflix stated in response to Hwang's comments that they had not yet officially greenlit a second season, but were in discussions with Hwang towards one. During an earnings call in January 2022, Netflix's Ted Sarandos said when asked about a second season "Absolutely...the Squid Game universe has just begun." Hwang said in April 2022 that he presently was working on Killing Old People Club, an adaptation of a work called "Pape Satan Aleppe: Chronicles of a Liquid Society" by Umberto Eco, and anticipated that the second season of Squid Game would be completed and broadcast by 2024. Netflix confirmed that the second season was greenlit in June 2022.

Writing

Due to the stress of writing and producing the first series of nine episodes himself, Hwang initially had no immediate plans to write a second season to Squid Game, and did not have well-developed plans for a follow-up story and said that if he were to write one, he would likely need a staff of writers and directors to help him. However, with the immense popularity of the first season, Hwang later opined about the possibility of a second season in 2021, telling CNN, "There's nothing confirmed at the moment, but so many people are enthusiastic that I'm really contemplating it." Hwang also said in an interview with The Times that a second season may focus more on the story of the Front Man as well as incorporating more about the police: "I think the issue with police officers is not just an issue in Korea. I see it on the global news that the police force can be very late in acting on things—there are more victims or a situation gets worse because of them not acting fast enough. This was an issue that I wanted to raise." He added that he also wanted to explore the relationship between the cryptic Front Man and his policeman brother Hwang Jun-ho, as well as the background of the recruiter character. Hwang said that a particular inspiration behind the decision to continue the Squid Game story was The Matrix film series, in which Neo chooses the red pill over the blue pill; Gi-Hun, similarly, chooses to go after those responsible for the game rather than go back to his life.
Speaking about the games that appear in the season, Hwang said "They are once again simple children's games that a lot of kids in Korea grew up playing. I remember being on set and being reminded of my childhood days." However, he also wanted the games to be more universally recognized this time: "In many different countries around the world, there will be some kind of version similar to these games that you probably have played as a child,...They're going to be both very easy to understand and play, and very fun."

Casting

In April 2022, Hwang confirmed that the characters of Gi-hun and the Front Man would return for the second season. During Netflix's Tudum: A Global Fan Event in June 2023, Lee Jung-jae was confirmed to reprise his role alongside Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo and Wi Ha-joon. On June 29, Netflix released more info on the new season's cast, which includes Kang Ha-neul, Park Sung-hoon, Yim Si-wan, Yang Dong-geun, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-wook, Won Ji-an, Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-shim, Choi Seung-hyun, Lee David, and Roh Jae-won.
Prior to the season's release, the casting choice of Park Sung-hoon as transgender ex-soldier Hyun-Ju was controversial due to some wanting a trans person to authentically portray their experiences. Criticism fell on both the casting of a cisgender person for the role instead of a transgender person, as well as for casting a man in particular as opposed to a woman. Some argued in response to this criticism that South Korea is conservative with regards to LGBTQ rights, and that trying to find a transgender actress willing to put herself in the spotlight was not reasonable. People also opined that having a trans character in a South Korean series at all is an important step in representation. On December 18, 2024, during press day for Squid Game 2, director and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk spoke to a group of journalists, about why he wanted to include a trans character this time around:
The people who come to join the games in Squid Game are usually marginalized or neglected from society, and not just financially speaking, but people who would belong to marginalized groups. In season one, the representative character for that was Ali, who was a foreigner working in Korea, which is one of the most representative minority groups in Korea. Currently today, unfortunately, in the Korean society the gender minority is a group that is not as accepted widely within society. I wanted to create a character that would represent that. Acceptance of trans people has gotten better recently, but it's still not where it needs to be. In Korea, when you are a gender minority, it is not as widely accepted yet, unfortunately, and you are still seen to be very much out of the norm. And so by creating a character like Hyun-ju, through her choices, her actions, and the way she carries herself in the game, I hope that that could raise awareness of these issues that we face today.

Though Hwang wanted to cast a transgender actor for the role, it was difficult to find such an actor in Korea due to the above issues, and believed that Park's prior roles in The Glory and Queen of Tears made him capable of portraying the role.
Jo Yu-ri, who portrayed Kim Jun-hee, is best known as a former member of the South Korean–Japanese girl group Iz*One. She first gained prominence after participating in Mnet's reality competition series Produce 48 in 2018, where she finished in third place and debuted with Iz*One on October 29, 2018. Following Iz*One's disbandment in April 2021, Jo embarked on a successful solo career, releasing her debut single album Glassy in October 2021, which garnered her several nominations for Rookie of the Year at major music awards.
On December 4, 2024, T.O.P was revealed as a cast member through the official Netflix YouTube account in the form of a "Meet the Cast" video. He would play the role of a former rapper, Thanos, fallen from grace due to a crypto scam. The character was created before casting, T.O.P receiving the role after Hwang found his "serious" approach. Hwang explained that he wanted to cast someone who stopped working due to drugs, T.O.P retiring from the K-pop industry and leaving BigBang over a marijuana conviction. The casting of T.O.P received controversy in South Korea, with the actor's face being blurred on the Korean show Live This Morning when airing a segment about the show. The casting led some viewers to believe that Lee Jung-jae, who portrayed Seong Gi-hun and was close to T.O.P, had gotten him the role, a claim that Lee denied. Netflix and Hwang received criticism for this casting for possibly setting a bad precedent. T.O.P was absent for a time from promotional events with the cast. Responding to speculation that he was removed from promotional events over the controversy, Hwang said that they planned to not have him featured from the beginning, wanting T.O.P to be able to talk about his involvement at his own pace. He felt that he had "a lot of guts" for agreeing to do the performance considering his history with drugs, and was surprised that he had still not been forgiven. He also believed that the reaction to his casting would not be reflected outside of Korea due to different legality and opinions on marijuana use in some countries. He also believed that his character may prove popular with younger viewers in Korea.