Like a down-on-his luck schlub being yanked toward a ledge, Netflix has taken the inevitable plunge: Squid Game – the global smash that became Netflix’s biggest hit of all time – is getting a second season, according to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.
‘There's been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season… I almost feel like you leave us no choice!’ Hwang told the Associated Press. ‘There will indeed be a second season. It's in my head right now. I'm in the planning process currently. But I do think it's too early to say when and how it's going to happen.’
At this point, very little is known about the future of Squid Game. Hwang himself seems surprised by the success of his dystopian passion project. But season 1 left a tonne of plot threads dangling like so many Tug-of-War players suspended over a chasm. Here are the biggest questions we have in advance of Squid Game season 2, plus some theories about where the show could go next.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME FOLLOW… you’ve been warned.
What will happen to Squid Game protagonist Gi-Hun?
At the beginning of Squid Game, 456 hardscrabble characters are whisked off to a mysterious island and pitted against one another in a series of deadly playground games, beginning with a rousing round/massacre of Red Light, Green Light. By the end of the games, only one player still stood: Indebted gambler, deadbeat dad and kindhearted soul Seong Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae), who spent the story caring for the elderly Il-Nam, who – BIG TWIST – ended up being the mastermind of the games all along.
Gi-Hun’s character was notable thanks to his sense of fairness and humanity: As other players resorted to duplicity and midnight stab-a-thons in a bid to win a giant bin of prize money, Gi-Hun remained loyal to those around him until the end. As such, in the denouement, we saw an impoverished, guilt-wracked Gi-Hun living in squalor and refusing to spend a cent of the fortune he accrued.
In the final moments, having learned the true identity of his dying gganbu, Gi-Hun was seen getting a fiery new Run Lola Run haircut and preparing to board a plane to reunite with his daughter in the US – only to make a last-minute decision to head back to the island, presumably to take the whole bloody enterprise down.
Hwang has confirmed the return of Gi-Hun, saying: ‘I will promise you this... Gi-hun will come back, he'll do something for the world.’ But the nature of the character’s return could provide some surprises.
There’s a parallel theory worth noting: In the series, the masked puppetmaster known as Front Man (more on him in a moment) was revealed to also be a previous winner – and the brother of dogged detective Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), who served as a paragon of truth before being unceremoniously shot and plummeting off a cliff.
Could Squid Game be positioning its lovable protagonist as a future antagonist seduced by the dark side, Vader-style? Or will Hwang pull the rug out from under us and show Gi-Hun leveraging his fortune and newly colorful hairdo in the service of a K-Pop career? Only time will tell.
Will Squid Game delve into the story of the Front Man?
The mysterious Front Man became an instant icon from season 1, but we know little about him. We don’t know how he managed to survive the bloodbath – did he do so through manipulation or play it safe like Gi-Hun? And why did he go back?
The story of his rise could provide a parallel narrative to Gi-Hun’s own journey. What many Western viewers were not aware of is that Front Man actor Lee Byung-hun is a marquee star of Korean cinema, having starred in such mega-hits as I Saw the Devil and