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By Mia TaylorFeatures correspondent
NetflixHere’s everything we can glean from the just-released teaser for Season 2 of Squid Game.
The anticipation is building for season two of the wildly popular Netflix survival thriller Squid Game. The first series was so widely watched, in fact, that within its first month – November of 2021 – it became Netflix’s most streamed show of all time, with 1.65 billion viewing hours, largely contributing to foreign-language film and TV gaining more mainstream status among English-speaking viewers. Netflix then released a reality game show spinoff, Squid Game: The Challenge, which was also extremely popular (and raised ethics questions). Now, to keep fans chomping at the bit for more, Netflix just dropped a 17-second teaser of the original Squid Game’s second series.
While it’s hard to glean a great deal from a mere 17 seconds, here’s how the clip unfolds. The winner of season one’s Squid Game, Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), the show’s main protagonist, can be seen walking through what appears to be an airport and holding a mobile phone to his ear.
The voice on the other end of the line says: “You’ll regret your decision.” To this, Gi-hun replies, “I will find you.” There’s a pause, and then he adds: “No matter what it takes.”
More like this:
And that’s it. The clip fades to black. If you have questions, you’re not alone. First of all, who is talking on the phone? And what decision will Gi-hun regret?
NetflixFor those who need a recap of season one (which will contain spoilers), or who missed the global sensation altogether, Squid Game is a show about 456 cash-strapped players who accepted a recruiter’s invitation to take part in a series of classic Korean children’s games. The prize dangled before the players is a chance to win $4.56 million. But it soon becomes clear that the stakes are very high, as each challenge involves the risk of injury or death – and the game soon becomes bloody.
By the end of the first season, however, Gi-hun emerges victorious. And that’s not all: Before the season wraps up, Gi-hun decides he wants to thwart the Squid Game recruiter’s attempts to enlist more players for a future game.
“At the end of season one, Gi-hun was going to go back home to reunite with his daughter, but then he sees a person recruiting for Squid Game and tries to foil them,” says Sean Boelman, film and television critic at FandomWire. “He was supposed to get on a flight and go back home, but he turned around in the airport at the end of the final episode.”
And so here we are, back to the newly released 17-second teaser, which appears to pick right back up in the airport scene that closed out season one. So, what decision will Gi-hun regret, exactly? And who was on the phone issuing that threat?
NetflixWhat’s in store for series two – and will anyone be brought back from the dead?
Boelman suggests the voice on the phone may have been that of season one’s Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). And what decision will Gi-hun regret? Boelman suggests that threat refers to Gi-hun’s decision to try to thwart the Squid Game Recruiter’s efforts to enlist more contestants and dismantle the Squid Game organization.
“At the end of season one, the Front Man issues an ultimatum to Gi-hun, telling him to move on with his life and go back to his daughter,” explains Boelman. “The comment we hear in the season two trailer – in which Gi-hun is told he will regret his decision — appears to continue that threat from Front Man.”
To that end, Boelman envisions a variety of potential season two plot lines unfolding involving Gi-hun. “Perhaps the conflict could involve the organizers of the games kidnapping Gi-hun’s loved ones to punish Gi-hun for trying to thwart their sadistic games,” explains Boelman. “Maybe this could end with Gi-hun himself ending up back in the games – whether he is kidnapped by the organizers and forced to participate or secretly infiltrates the games to bring them down from within.”
“The teaser makes it look like a classic revenge thriller in the vein of something like [the French action-thriller film directed by Pierre Morel] Taken,” adds Boelman. He also believes season two may involve bringing back some of the characters from season two who appeared to have been killed off.
“My speculation is that some characters we saw die in the first season might not actually be dead,” Boelman continues, adding that he expects Netflix will release at least a few more teasers before series two gets underway.
For its part, Netflix has revealed some details about the forthcoming season, including that “the highly-anticipated second season will follow Gi-hun as he abandons his plans to go to the US and starts a chase with a motive”.
In addition, the entertainment giant has confirmed that several of season one’s popular characters will indeed be back, including Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-joon, and Gong Yoo – all of whom will reprise their roles from the first season.
Netflix however, has not confirmed when in 2024 series two will begin airing.
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