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Netflix’s Squid Game creator breaks down finale, reveals story he’d ‘like to explore’ in Season 2
Now that Squid Game has beat out Stranger Things and The Witcher for the largest series launch at Netflix, the probability of a second season is no longer an "if" but a "when." And once the streaming giant finally does hand that *ahem* green-light, the show's creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, won't be wanting for additional material.
Chatting with The Hollywood Reporter about Squid Game's overnight success, the writer — who nearly went bankrupt while trying to sell the project — talked about how "there are a lot of possibilities out there for season two storylines."
***WARNING! The following contains major spoilers for the ending of Squid Game!***
Still, Dong-hyuk never expected his show to become a global phenomenon and as such, conceived a final episode that could stand on its own two feet (or tentacles, one might say). This manifests itself as Gi-Hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) deciding not to board a plane bound for the United States where his daughter now lives, while leaving open the option of finding the people behind the game...or just going on with his life.
"That was, in fact, my way of communicating the message that you should not be dragged along by the competitive flow of society, but that you should start thinking about who has created the whole system — and whether there is some potential for you to turn back and face it," the creator explained. "So it’s not necessarily Gi-hun turning back to get revenge. It could actually be interpreted as him making a very on-the-spot eye contact with what is truly going on in the bigger picture. So I thought that might be a good, simple-but-ambiguous way to end the story for Gi-hun."
But since that ending is rather open-ended, a second season could help provide closure. Not just for Gi-hun but for other characters as well, and Dong-hyuk has already pinpointed a few dangling threads he could pull out if (or when) he returns to this world.
"There are some other stories in the series that have not been addressed," Dong-hyuk continued. "For example, the story of the police officer and the story of his brother, the Front Man. So if I end up creating Season 2, I’d like to explore that storyline — what is going on between those two brothers? 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."
So many options. Not to mention, there are still plenty of kids games left unused for a potential second round of episodes. Squid Game Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.