The much-anticipated second season of Squid Game began streaming on Netflix on Thursday. The show, set three years after the first season, sees the return of principal cast members Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon, and Lee Byung-hun, among others. Season 2 also introduces a bunch of new, younger characters.
In an interview with AP, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk said the new season gave him more screen time for these characters. "When I was creating season one, I thought it was very hard for you to be up to your neck in debt when you’re only in your 20s or 30s. I thought you had to be at least middle-aged to need money and want to join the Squid Game. But the world has changed. Now I feel like there are fewer decent jobs for young people and they feel like working hard doesn’t even get them into the middle class. They want to hit the jackpot, so that’s why they invest in cryptocurrency. In Korea, there are a lot of young people in their early 20s or 30s turning to online gambling. I wanted to show what society really is like today."
Handling such a heavy cast, featuring some of Korean cinema's biggest names, isn't an easy task. Hwang said he felt relief when some characters got killed, adding that it was tricky to bid adieu to actors on their last day on set. “‘Oh no! How sad! I won’t see you tomorrow,’ but I was always smiling inside.”
As with Season 1, Squid Game season two once again revolves around debt-ridden characters lured by a secret competition in South Korea without realising the magnitude of the hellish ride they're going to be taken on.
Hwang initially envisioned turning his story into a two-hour film over a decade ago, but couldn't find any backers or actors willing to come aboard. In the meantime, he focused on other projects, until the opportunity came to pitch it to Netflix, which bought it, and the rest is history.
At an earlier Netflix event, Lee Jung-jae, who plays 'Player 456' Seong Gi-hun, talked about tapping into his character's "optimistic and helpful sides" from Season 1.
“I really wanted to do that part of his justice," Lee said. "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. 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?’”
The third season will premiere in 2025.