The Squid Game Season 2 teaser trailer gave fans a familiar peek at Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae): In the first few seconds, he stares down the barrel of the Squid Game camera, and a voice tells him to “Smile!” When Gi-hun received the same prompt in Season 1, he grinned, excited for whatever might come next. But in Season 2, he knows that brutality lies ahead, so Player 456 glares into the lens he once beamed into, unblinking and determined.
Viewers are in for some big surprises — and changes — when Squid Game Season 2 arrives on Dec. 26. Series creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk and lead actor Lee confirmed as much at Netflix’s Fall Edit event in Los Angeles (which also revealed a new arrangement of the thriller’s iconic score).
“The way you see Gi-hun in Season 1 and the state that you see him in Season 2 are very different,” Lee said during the November panel.
Hwang agreed. “There’s something inside him that has just been broken,” he said. “Gi-hun has experienced too many things — witnessed too many deaths — for him to return to the way he was before.” Gi-hun’s indelible transformation pushes him to compete in Squid Game again in Season 2 and “further his journey.”
However, Lee promises you may still see glimmers of Gi-hun’s optimistic and helpful sides from Season 1. The actor seized any opportunity in Season 2 to nod toward the player’s inherent goodness. “I really wanted to do that part of his [character] justice,” Lee said.
After all, “conscience” defined Lee’s approach to Squid Game Season 2. He was inspired by a Korean proverb that says: A conscience that doesn’t lead to action is not working well.
“In order to call ourselves upright citizens or human beings, we really have to be true to our conscience. When we are not, we have to be able to feel shame,” Lee said. “When I was shooting Season 2 and going through all of those scenes — playing the games that were almost warlike — I asked myself, ‘Is my conscience working as Gi-hun?’ ”
While Lee found motivation that way, director Hwang was moved by the concept of choice. He revealed players in Season 2 will have to wear X and O badges on their tracksuits to announce their decisions on a very divisive and mysterious matter.
“We have to be cautious when making choices, and we have to accept the consequences [of those choices],” Hwang said. “I also wanted to tell the story about how the different choices we make create different conflicts and divisions. I wanted to talk about how the choices we make decide which side we end up on.”
Wondering which side Gi-hun will wind up on? You’ll have to wait until Dec. 26 — and you’re going to want to buckle up for the ride. “Squid Game Season 2 is crazy,” Hwang teased. “The world is crazy now. And this [season] is crazy because it’s based on the world as we live in now.”
Keep coming back to Tudum to prepare for all the Squid Game craziness ahead.
