Netflix already contemplating green-light for third season of hit thriller 'Squid Game'

Netflix may be doubling down on its latest international hit — Squid Game — by turning it into an all-out franchise. During an interview with The Korean Broadcasting System, series creator, director, and executive producer Hwang Dong-hyuk admitted that he's still in the midst of discussions with the streaming giant for subsequent seasons of the global streaming sensation. 

"I'm in talks with Netflix over Season 2 as well as Season 3," he said (via The Korea Times). "We will come to a conclusion anytime soon."

The writer also confirmed that the sophomore installment would once again focus on the character of Gi-Hun (played by Lee-Jung Jae), who — at the end of Season 1 — seemingly made the decision to put a stop to the titular game once and for all, despite the opportunity to walk away a rich man who could provide for his young daughter.

"I'm not really in the right place to be discussing Season 2 in an official setting, but if there were to be a Season 2, in the first season that we saw Gi-hun is a character whose humanity is shown through or exposed in certain situations," Dong-hyuk said earlier this month. "In other words, his humanity is shown through a very passive manner. But I would think that in the second season, what he has learned from the games and his experience in the first season, they will all be put to use in a more active manner."

In addition, the side story of the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and his police officer brother (Wi Ha-joon) has yet to be resolved. The big question on everyone's minds is: How did the Front Man go from a lowly player to a callous master of ceremonies willing to shoot his own family members in cold blood? It's just one of the narrative mysteries still on the table.

"If I end up creating Season 2, I’d like to explore that storyline — what is going on between those two brothers?" Dong-hyuk remarked in October. "And then I could also go into the story of that recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode. And, of course, we could go with Gi-hun’s story as he turns back, and explore more about how he’s going to navigate through his reckoning with the people who are designing the games."

Squid Game premiered on Netflix in September of this year, nabbing the biggest series launch of any Netflix Original project (that includes genre juggernauts like Stranger Things and The Witcher). According to the company, the show was streamed by a total of 142 million households (about 5 percent of the global population). For a time there, it was the most talked-about television program in the world, spawning Halloween costumes and an SNL parody. At the height of its cultural powers, Squid Game ranked near the top of IMDb's list of the 101 most popular TV shows in the world. It now ranks at No. 40.