Squid Game director and star reveal ‘heavier, darker’ season 2 will be ‘a game-within-a-game’

When Netflix’s hit Korean survival drama returns for season 2, Seong Gi-hun, a.k.a. Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae), is ditching the questionable trauma-response hair color he debuted in the season 1 finale after winning $4.56 billion in the competition featuring deadly children’s games. But it wasn’t soon enough for the actor, who tells Entertainment Weekly that he still had to “come back and shoot in my red hair” at the beginning of season 2. “It felt very strange, to say the least,” he adds with a laugh.

Gi-hun’s hair won’t be the only thing that’s changed when Squid Game finally returns Dec. 26, more than three years after sparking an increase in green tracksuit sales. The director reveals that Gi-hun is “a different person” entirely after the events of season 1—not just surviving the games but also learning his mother died while he was away and his daughter moved to the States. “In season 2, you will not be getting the foolish and clumsy or childish at times Gi-hun that you saw in the beginning,” Hwang says. “You will get to see a much heavier, darker side of Gi-hun.”

Lee adds that due to Gi-hun’s “huge amount of survivor’s guilt” from being the sole survivor out of the 456 players, he’s spent the past three years planning his revenge.  “He spent that time believing that these games must not continue, and he must put an end to it,” Lee says. “He spent that time trying to track down those who are behind the game.”

The new season begins after that extended time jump, and Gi-hun has a new mission “of wanting to put an end to these games ever being held in the first place,” Hwang reveals. After using his new fortune to try and do that from the outside world only to continually fail, he realizes the only way to accomplish his goal is by re-entering the game to take it down from the inside.

“Gi-hun is back again in his green tracksuit,” Lee confirms, but warns that viewers shouldn’t expect to see a replay of season 1 as Gi-hun returns to the dorms. “Gi-hun’s purpose is not to play the game but to go after those who have created the game and put a stop to it. Compared to every other participant within the game and also himself in season 1, the approach that he takes is going to be very different this time around. It could almost be described as a game within a-game for Gi-hun.”

And just because Gi-hun has experienced the games before doesn’t mean he’ll have a leg up on his competition to make it through each round. “Most of the games will be new this time around,” Lee reveals. “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.”

While the director is reluctant to reveal what kinds of new games fans will see this season—or if there will be another epic bloodbath like Red Light, Green Light — he explains that he wanted to open up 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,” Hwang says. “They’re going to be both very easy to understand and play, and very fun.”

Gi-hun won’t be as invested in winning again as he focuses instead on getting to the creators of the game, but he’ll still be playing to survive each round. So what are the chances that he could make it to the end and win again? “When I was reading the scripts, that was at the top of mind for me,” Lee says. “That was what I wanted to find out and was most curious about—how far will Gi-hun be able to make it in the games? And when will he be eliminated—if ever? And if he’s eliminated, will he really die? There are so many twists and turns.”

There will be a few more familiar faces this season, along with Gi-hun: Lee Byung-hun returns as Front Man, and Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) is back after learning in the season 1 finale that the mysteriously masked leader who shot him is actually his missing brother and a former winner of the game. Gong Yoo will also reprise his role as the recruiter. “You’re going to get to see some characters who were just fleeting characters or made very brief appearances in season 1 that actually carry a lot of weight and play an important role in season 2,” Hwang says.

But that’s it for returning cast members—season 2 will introduce many more new characters played by Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Choi, Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Jo Yuri, and Won Ji-an.

“Compared to season 1, you’re going to get to meet more characters, just in terms of the sheer number,” Hwang says. “And they’re going to be so much more three-dimensional and very complex. Some of them will be allies, comrades, and friends to Gi-hun, and then there are going to be some enemies. The dynamics and relationships between the characters will be a lot more intense and intertwined with one another.”

After delivering a searing exploration of “the unlimited competition in a capitalist society and the way the losers of that competition are treated in our society” in the first season, the director was excited to return to that same idea in season 2 “from a larger perspective.”

“I’ll also ask questions about, Do we really have the ability to solve those problems?” Hwang adds. “And is that what we are at the end of the day? Is that what humanity is?”

The answers won’t be as simple as the games themselves, and that’s the whole point. “I can assure you it’s going to keep all of you at the edge of your seats,” Lee promises.

Let the games begin.

Squid Game season 2 premieres Thursday, Dec. 26 on Netflix.