Squid Game made history when it debuted on Netflix in September 2021. The South Korean survival drama television series surpassed Bridgerton to become the most-watched show ever on the streaming service, a record that the series still holds today. Squid Game features a competition involving 456 players who are struggling financially and play deadly children’s games to win the grand prize. The series was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards and won six, including Outstanding Lead Actor for Lee Jung-jae and Outstanding Director for Hwang Dong-hyuk.
After Squid Game‘s massive worldwide success, Netflix renewed the series for season two on June 12, 2022. Netflix also adapted the series into a reality show that premiered in November 2023.
Squid Game season 2 premiered in 2024. Netflix released the first look at the upcoming season on February 1. Keep reading to get all the updates about Squid Game season 2.
Season 1 of Squid Game follows Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father who is invited to play a series of children’s games for a massive cash prize. After he’s taken to an unknown location, he finds himself among 456 total players who are imprisoned by masked guards who take orders from the Front Man. They play the first game, Red Light, Green Light, and discover that the losers are killed on the spot, with each death adding money to the grand prize. Gi-hun forms alliances with some of the other players including his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo, North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok, Pakistani migrant worker Ali Abdul, and an elderly man with a brain tumor named Oh II-nam. Their enemies are gangster Jang Deok-su and con woman Han Mi-nyeo.
As the games are going on, police officer Hwang Jun-ho sneaks in to find his missing brother. Jun-ho makes it to another island and tries to call for help, before the Front Man finds him and reveals himself to be Jun-ho’s brother, In-ho. Jun-ho refuses to join the games and is shot by In-ho and falls off a cliff to his presumed death.
The final game comes down to Gi-hun and Sang-woo. Gi-hun lets Sang-woo live, but Sang-woo decides to stab himself in the neck and he dies. Gi-hun comes home with a bank card to access the prize money but he learns that his mother has died. One year passes and Gi-hun still hasn’t used the prize money. He discovers that Oh II-nam is alive and is the mastermind behind the games. Oh II-nam dies and Gi-hun decides to give a share of the prize money to Sae-byeok’s brother and Sang-woo’s mother. As Gi-hun prepares to fly to LA to reconnect with his daughter, he sees the same recruiter who got him to play the games, and calls a phone number to find out who is running the game now. After the person on the phone call refers to Gi-hun as Player 456, he decides to not board the plane.
