K-dramas have been gaining global popularity for a while. Squid Game, a show about a deadly series of games where survival means money, definitely has had a major role to play in this. The show draws inspiration from popular manga like Liar Game and Battle Royale to create a truly unique experience for the audience.

In fact, taking inspiration from or straight up adapting webtoons and manhwa has been a rising trend in the K-drama industry of late. That doesn’t mean that they all do it well, though, since adapting a graphic series is never an easy task. Still, there are some K-dramas that beautifully translate the emotions and themes of a webtoon to screen. 10 of the best of these adaptations are listed below:

1) Business Proposal

Released in 2022, this K-drama features Kim Sejeong, who immediately went on to become a beloved new industry talent, as Shin Ha-ri. To help her friend escape the clutches of an arranged marriage, Ha-ri agrees to go on the blind date her family has arranged and scare the rich guy away. She puts on a bold attire and decides to try everything in her power to deter the man in front of him from falling for her.

Except that the man, Kang Tae-moo, turns out to be the CEO of her company. He makes her a proposal that has her living a double life even as they start falling for each other. Romantic, funny, and endlessly entertaining, this K-drama is based on a web novel by HaeHwa and is definitely worth a watch.

You can read A Business Proposal on Tapas, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix.

2) Marry My Husband

Released last year, Marry My Husband has 16 episodes and features Park Min-young in the role of the protagonist, Kang Ji-won. It’s based on the concept of rebirth, a theme that is currently being explored a lot in recent webtoons and light novels. In this story, Ji-won, a terminal cancer patient, is murdered by her so-called best friend and husband, who are having an affair. She dies heartbroken and bitter, only to find herself reborn and transported to a time before she got cancer and when she and her would-be husband were still dating. She quickly realizes that her friend, Soo-min, has been ruining her life since their school days.

Min-hwan, meanwhile, is a shoddy partner determined to use her to live a cushy life. Determined to escape her sad fate this time, Ji-won plots to make Soo-min marry Min-hwan in her stead. It’s horribly satisfying to watch Ji-won, brilliant and bold, impeccably pull off each step of her revenge. The drama is fast-paced and well-written, and the acting is top-notch, making this one a must-watch.

You can read Marry My Husband on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Prime Video.

3) True Beauty

A heartwarming high school drama about the “ugly” Joo-kyung, True Beauty came out in 2018 and immediately started winning hearts. Based on a webtoon by Yaongyi, the story follows the ugly duckling, Joo-kyung, who is endlessly bullied and nearly abused by her schoolmates because of her looks. After a particularly painful episode where she is degraded by her crush along with her bullies, she changes schools. She treats it as a new start and trains herself to use makeup to make herself beautiful so no one in her new school would hate her.

The plan works, and Joo-kyung’s new schoolmates start regarding her as some kind of star. Inside, she’s the same “ugly” comic book nerd, though, and she lives in constant fear of discovery. Till she meets a boy who likes her just as she is. The show is lighthearted, often silly, and sometimes cringey. As long as you don’t take it very seriously, the show makes for a great one-time watch.

You can read True Beauty on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix where available.

4) Extraordinary You

This 2019 K-drama seems like a typical high-school romance, except it really isn’t. The series is about a high-school student, Dan-oh, who realizes she and her world are fictional. She is, in fact, a character in a romance webtoon. She is not even the protagonist but one of the supporting characters meant to help the protagonists fall in love. Determined to lead her own life and not let her fate be written by a webtoon artist, Dan-oh sets out to tweak the plot to suit her needs and maybe even find love while at it. The show is clever, full of sci-fi elements, and has quite a unique plotline. 

You can read Extraordinary You’s original manhwa, July Found by Chance, on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Rakuten Viki.

5) All of Us Are Dead

If you’ve watched Train to Busan, you know that South Korea takes its zombies seriously. All of Us Are Dead has one of the most unique depictions of a zombie outbreak in recent years. Based on a webtoon by Joo Dong-geun, All of Us Are Dead was released in 2022. It tells the story of a school full of students who become trapped inside when their school becomes ground zero for a zombie outbreak.

To survive, the kids must band together to fight off the infected, rabid creatures their schoolmates were turning into. For a show with so many characters, All of Us Are Dead does the job of exploring each character’s arc and development extremely well. The series is emotional, thrilling, and often downright horrifying, making it a must-watch for fans of zombie media and gory tales in general. 

You can read All of Us Are Dead on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix.

RELATED: 10 Best K-Dramas for Beginners Seeking Their Next Obsession

6) Nevertheless

Featuring fan favorites Song Kang as Jae-on and Han So-hee as Na-bi, Nevertheless is based on a webtoon by Jeongseo. The first episode of the show came out in 2021. Almost from the moment it came out, it found itself a loyal fanbase that would wait eagerly for the release of each new episode. Its popularity dwindled a little toward the end, but overall, it remains a well-loved adaptation of a manhwa.

The story follows the flirtatious Jae-on and the cynical Na-bi as they find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other. Jae-on isn’t one for romance, and Na-bi doesn’t believe in love. Their outlooks on life and love are different. They even have vastly different art styles and take on creativity. Still, they find themselves in a situationship that either one is reluctant and unable to leave. 

You can read Nevertheless on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix.

7) My ID Is Gangnam Beauty

Im Soo-hyang and Cha Eun-woo star in this 2018 K-drama based on a manhwa by Maenggi Ki. The story follows Mi-rae, a girl who is constantly bullied because of how she looks. She finally saves and gets plastic surgery, except it opens up a whole new can of worms. Struggling to stay strong through it all, Mi-rae finally meets someone who sees her for who she is.

However, one of Mi-rae’s batchmates really doesn’t want to see her succeed. While some always try to be the center of attention, somehow, it’s always Mi-rae who takes the spotlight. Driven by jealousy, she plots to take Mi-rae down. But she has her own skeletons in her closet, and she’d go to any length to ensure no one discovers her secret.

You can read My ID Is Gangnam Beauty on Webtoon, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix.

8) What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim

Based on a webtoon of the same name, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? is about a young and successful executive and his extraordinary secretary. One day, she declares her decision to resign, much to the amazement of her colleagues and the bafflement of her boss. Lee Young-joon, played by Park Seo-joon, is not like others. He is handsome, smart, and successful. He is also a raging narcissist.

Determined not to let his capable secretary, Mi-so, resign, he is ready to give her anything, money, company, and perhaps even his heart. Little does Mi-so know that her past is connected to Young-joon’s in dark, irreversible ways. And the latter needs to fight his own demons to find his way to her. 

You can read What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim on Tapas and TappyToon, with its K-drama streaming on Hulu.

9) Itaewon Class

Itaewon Class is a K-drama that aired its first episode on January 31st, 2020. Based on a webtoon by Kwang jin, the show follows a rag-tag group of misfits as they try to build a bar together. But the bar is only the beginning, and they each have their own dreams and quests to chase. Sae-ro-yi, played by Park Seo-joon, is the male protagonist who is at the center of it all. He is the one who binds the group together.

As a high school student, Sae-ro-yi suffered endless misfortune at the hands of Jang Dae-hee, the founder of the Jangga Group. He was expelled from school, lost his father, and finally found himself in jail. While in jail, Sae-ro-yi plots the downfall of Dae-hee. The show follows him on his journey to build his own business and self-identity from the ground up. It is a tale of perseverance, friendships, and, of course, love. 

You can read Itaewon Class on Tapas, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix.

10) Lovely Runner

Released last year, Lovely Runner follows Im-sol, a disabled fangirl, as she goes on a quest through time and space to prevent her idol from committing suicide. She travels 15 years into the past with the help of Sun-jae, her idol, specifically his old watch. Once there, she resolves to protect Sun-jae from things she deems can be the causes of his depression.

What Im-sol doesn’t know is that her idol has his eyes on her too, and while he doesn’t always understand what she’s blabbering about, he’s still charmed by her. Meanwhile, Im-sol realizes that there may be more to their shared pasts, and Sun-jae’s apparent suicide might not have been a suicide at all. 

You can read Lovely Runner on Tapas, with its K-drama streaming on Netflix where available.

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Squid Game Season 3 is finally coming to Netflix later this Summer, and the creator behind it all is setting up how important its baby surprise is going to be. As Squid Game prepares to release its final season later this June, fans got the first look at what to expect from the series’ final episodes with a special teaser trailer setting the stage for the final wave of deadly games. But there are bigger teases than that within this trailer as well as the final moments of the trailer reveal a mysterious baby’s crying. That could really only mean one thing.

Kim Jun-hee (played by Jo Yu-ri in the series) was introduced in Squid Game Season 2 as a young soon to be mother who has been caught up in a terrible debt situation thanks to the baby’s father, Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-Wan), getting caught up in a cryptocurrency scam. The baby’s crying is likely teasing that Jun-hee is going to be having her baby at some point in the final episodes, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed to Entertainment Weekly that this is going to be much more important of an event than fans might expect.

Squid Game Season 3 Will Feature a Surprise Birth

When asked about whether or not the baby crying in the Squid Game Season 3 trailer meant we’re going to see Jun-hee coming to term, Hwang explained, “You have [heard] the baby’s crying in the trailer, so people can expect that there could be a baby,” the creator stated. “This baby plays a very important role in season 3, not just for Jun-hee, but [also] for the fate of everyone inside. You can look forward to that.” In terms of what else is coming in the third season, the creator also teased some rather intense stuff heading into the finale.

“In the case of season 3, I wanted to introduce games that could really show the lowest bottom of human beings, because the series itself is reaching its climax,” Hwang revealed. “I wanted very intense games to bring out the bottom parts of human nature.” As for how he selected the games themselves, “In season 1, we had lots of games like Tug of War that really utilized height and the fear that this height gives, but in the case of season 2, we didn’t have that element,” Hwang explained. “That is why in season 3, I decided to introduce games that could really infuse fear in people with sheer height.”

RELATED: 10 Best K-Dramas for Beginners Seeking Their Next Obsession

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 will be making its worldwide debut with Netflix on June 27th. Hwang also explained his approach to this final season and how it differs from the first two, “I wanted to take a slightly different approach — I wanted to focus on how [people] have to preserve their humanity amidst this intense competition in this capitalistic era. I wanted to focus on how we can preserve our sense of humanity and how we should remain humans even amidst this intense competition. I try to pose that as a final question.”

With this in mind heading towards the grand finale, there are so many characters caught in the mix that they might not survive as fans are hoping for. Gi-Hun’s fate isn’t particularly safe either, so now it’s just a matter of figuring out how this baby will factor in the final episodes when they hit this June and whether or not it saves anyone from a potentially terrible fate otherwise.

HT – Entertainment Weekly

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K-dramas, or Korean dramas as a term, refers to South Korean TV shows that have recently become popular among a global audience. Squid Game, the K-drama that firmly established the genre on the world stage, is finally returning to screens with a third and final season this June.  But this show wasn’t the South Korean TV industry’s first attempt at unique storytelling. There are several other K-dramas that are equally, if not more, exquisite.

While Squid Game opened the gateway for many fans, one may find the medium has plenty more to offer in terms of other thrillers, as well as a deep library of fantasy, action, crime dramas, and more. There’s plenty of romance as well, with When Life Gives You Tangerines as a prominent recent example, but even that hardly defines the face of K-dramas as a whole, with it having traces of a period piece similar to Reply 1988. So, in case you are on the lookout for your new obsession after being blown away by the brilliance of Squid Game, here are 10 of the best K-dramas out there:

1) Goblin or Guardian: The Great and Lonely God

Featuring Gong Yoo of Squid Game fame, Goblin or Guardian tells the story of a warrior named Kim Shin. A historical fantasy drama, the show follows Kim as he returns from war, only to be betrayed by his friend, the king. He dies a traitor’s death, only to rise again as a goblin cursed to roam the earth till he finds his bride. After traversing the earth for centuries, Kim finally meets the dauntless Ji Eun-tak, a young girl with a brilliant smile and an ability to see the dead. Theirs is not meant to be a tale of romance, though, as Eun-tak, as the goblin’s bride, is supposed to put him out of his misery. But can fate and the heavens keep apart two lovers who will risk death and damnation just to meet again?

2) What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim

The impeccable OG queen of K-dramas, Park Min-young, plays the role of Kim Mi-so, the terrifyingly capable secretary of an egotistical executive, Lee Young-joon. When she suddenly declares her decision to quit one day, Young-joon is thrown for a loop. Narcissistic as he is, he can’t believe anyone could want to leave him. He also refuses to let go of someone as efficient as Mi-so, trying everything in his power to change her mind. Things may not always be what they seem, though, and soon dark secrets from their shared past and repressed feelings threaten to upend their lives.

3) Itaewon Class

Itaewon Class is a story of perseverance, friendship, and vengeance served cold. Wronged by life, but especially by a powerful industrialist, ex-con Sae-ro-yi sets off to carve his own path to success. Soon, he is joined by a ragtag group of misfits, and together they start a bar that they have high hopes for. As the story unfolds, they find themselves up against nearly insurmountable obstacles, including Jang Dae-hee, the industrialist who nearly destroyed Sae-ro-yi in the past. But the team will stop at nothing till they realise their individual dreams. The entire story is an emotional rollercoaster. The acting is impeccable, especially considering the cast is made up of quite a few new faces. But it is the soundtrack, at once rousing, heartrending, and unendingly hopeful, that takes the cake.

4) Strong Girl Bong-Soon

Park Bo-young plays the adorable Do Bong-soon in this romantic dramedy about a young girl with superpowers. Bong-soon may be tiny and adorable, but she is also a force to be reckoned with. Armed with super strength, a trait inherited by all the women in her family, she regularly takes on bad people and evil forces. She meets her archnemesis in the form of a cunning serial killer lurking in her neighborhood and toying with her loved ones’ lives. Will superstrength be enough to keep her dear ones safe? Or will one masked fugitive destroy everything she holds dear?

5) Scarlet Heart: Ryeo

Ha-jin, an ordinary girl, suddenly travels 1000 years back in time, only to end up in another girl’s body. She had traveled back to the Goryeo dynasty’s era. Unfortunately enough, several of the princes begin to adore her, and she gets pulled into the vicious politics surrounding the throne. But while she commands the affections of many, it is her and the fourth prince’s story that makes audiences’ hearts flutter as many times as it breaks. Their tale is tragic, ending in misunderstandings and longing. Still, despite the trauma, this is a show worth watching, be it for its excellent storytelling, vivid depiction of courtly politics, or the host of handsome princes vying for the attention of one flower. Be warned, though, the ending left fans stunned and begging for a second season that never came.

[RELATED: Squid Game Season 2 Has Easter Eggs Only K-drama Veterans Will Catch]

6) Descendants of the Sun

A soldier in the South Korean special forces and a jaded surgeon find themselves drawn to each other. But while Mo-yeon’s, the surgeon, job keeps are stuck at the hospital, the soldier, Shi-jin, is fated to travel to secret destinations on dangerous missions. They are constantly kept apart by their jobs, till they find themselves before each other again during an emergency mission. The healer and the soldier, thus, unite to protect innocents from natural and man-made dangers.  

7) Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

A modern-day classic, Hometown Cha-cha-cha is eccentric, adorable, and endearing to its core. A successful dentist clashes with a handsome busybody in this rural drama. In this romantic comedy, city girl Hye-jin suddenly decides to open a dental clinic in a quaint little seaside town called Gongjin. It’s where she meets annoyingly persistent Du-sik, a man of many talents and a penchant for getting himself involved in his neighbours’ business. In Samdal-ri, Du-sik is the answer to everything, from leaking roofs to sick elders. So, he can’t help but get involved when a faux pas leads all the villagers to hate Hye-jin. But Du-sik hides dark secrets of his own. And there may be more to Hye-jin than she lets on.

8) Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Woo Young-woo is not like everyone else. She is what society would call a high-functioning autistic person. After becoming an attorney, she uses her high IQ and penchant for thinking outside the box to solve cases and help deliver justice. Great as she is at her job, she also struggles with everyday things, like eating unfamiliar food and using revolving doors. The 2022 show explores the world through the eyes of Young-woo as she learns to confront her fears, express herself better, and even fall in love.

The story is uniquely told and challenges people’s assumptions about autism. It explores the reasons behind Young-woo’s actions instead of dismissing them as odd qualities that come with autism. Of course, it’s not a definitive guide to neurodivergence, but it does help get the conversation started and it does so in endearing and entertaining ways. 

9) Squid Game

What can we say about this show that hasn’t already been written a thousand times? Released in 2021, this survival thriller captured viewers’ attention on a global scale, putting K-dramas solidly on the map and bringing attention to the previously overlooked genre. A dystopian nightmare of a show, Squid Game is about a group of poverty-stricken individuals who would do anything to earn money. But to win the coveted prizes, they must first survive a series of children’s games.

Death and despair are present throughout the story, yet the show never ceases to be entertaining, albeit in horrifying ways. The games are unique and spine-chilling. The acting is impeccable. All in all, this serves as an excellent entry point into the world of the mad, marvelous magic that is K-dramas.

10) Alchemy of Souls

Set in Daeho, a magical earth-like world where souls can switch bodies, Alchemy of Souls is basically the story of a group of young mages. The show has a little bit of everything: fantasy, action, drama, and comedy. It’s really no wonder, perhaps, that it recently got renewed for a third season, much to the joy of its many fans. The first season follows the male lead as he asks for the female lead’s help in changing his fate.

However, neither of them is who they seem to be, and the past may connect them in irreversible, important ways. The male protagonist is childish yet charming. The female lead is smart and a little reckless. The actions are especially a treat to behold, and the background score only adds to the overall aesthetic. But while the first season gathered praise from critics and audiences alike, the second one didn’t fare so well, many calling it unnecessary since the first season itself had a solid ending.

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Despite popular belief, Korean dramas aren’t always cheesy little romances. While a large portion of them focus on telling dorky and heartbreakingly beautiful tales of love, many dramas, like Squid Game or All of Us Are Dead, also explore other genres. So, spine-chilling thrillers or exquisite historical pieces aren’t quite a rarity in the industry either. But if there is one genre that Korean dramas explore expertly well, it is the fantasy genre. Korean fantasy stories offer anime-esque originality, which makes them refreshing, to say the least. 

In this universe, goblins and gods battle, and epic prophecies unfold and shake the world to its core. Mythical beasts and mermaids come alive, and you find yourself falling head over heels for a handsome hologram or, better yet, a chiseled, nine-tailed fox from legends of yore. So, without further ado, here’s a list of 10 of the very best fantasy and sci-fi dramas that the Korean industry has on offer:

1) Goblin

Also known as Guardian — The Lonely and Great God, Goblin is a tale of woe and joy. It is the story of a warrior who is cursed to roam the earth as a lonely goblin or a god for all eternity, waiting for the day he finds his bride so she can finally put him out of his misery. 

Often considered the gateway drug to Korean drama, Goblin has a bit of everything. It has magic, intelligent and sometimes ridiculous humor, dreamy romance, and a story so well told that it will leave you gasping for more. But perhaps the best thing about the show is the glorious love-hate bromance between the Goblin and a grim reaper.

2) Hotel Del Luna

Hotel Del Luna is an establishment like no other. Run by an enigma of a woman — CEO Jang Man-Wol — this is a luxurious hotel you can only check into once you check out of life. 

It is a hotel that serves as a pit stop between the earthly world and the afterlife, and guests may stay in it until they resolve their earthly wants and desires before moving on. The tale begins when Goo Chang-Sung, a young man who is very much alive, gets forced to work with Man-Wol. Together, they work to resolve the eccentric problems of their guests and find that there may be more to Man-Wol’s past than she lets on. 

3) W

Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character? Have you ever dreamt, with every fiber of your being, of meeting them, like the star-crossed lovers you know you are, and letting them sweep you off your feet? Because that’s exactly what this drama is about. 

The female lead’s crush, Kang Chul, the male protagonist of a webcomic, literally pulls her into his world. Kang Chul is precisely what you expect a fictional heartthrob to be like — charming, determined, and oozing all the charisma of the heroic main lead of a thrilling webcomic. So, she lets him sweep her off her feet, but drama and heartbreak ensue. Their love, it seems, is doomed from the start. Or is it?

4) Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

Historical drama meets fantasy in this heartrending piece that follows a royal family as they play a bloody game of thrones. The fantasy element is almost secondary and only comes into play once in the beginning and once again at the end when the female lead travels through time, only to find herself stuck in the body of a young noblewoman. 

She almost unwittingly becomes central to the story that unfolds, binding her in a timeless romance with an outcast prince. The series offers tears and heartbreak galore, so if you are not in the mood to have your heart ripped out and stomped on in the most glorious ways, this one’s not for you. 

5) Korean Odyssey

Known as the Triple Threat, handsome and charismatic actor Lee Seung-Gi plays the mythical beast of a male lead in this drama. And boy, does he bring the mischief and magic of the great Monkey King of legends to life. The drama follows the adventures of Son O Gong (a play on the Monkey King’s actual name, i.e., Sun Wukong) as he escapes his prison to seek a way to regain his full powers and take his rightful place as a god again.

RELATED: Netflix’s Hit Webtoon K-Drama Bloodhounds Returning for Season 2

6) Strong Girl Bong-soon

Tiny but feisty Do Bong Soon has a secret. All the women in her family are freakishly strong. She may be petite and pretty, but her physical abilities can give the Hulk a run for his money. The story begins when he meets a game company’s sweet and genius CEO and gets hired as his bodyguard. It’s a fun parody of superhero fantasies that has gotten its fair share of roses for its starring cast, as well as specific references such as in Squid Game Season 2.

Again, this story is romance-heavy. Cheesy lines and overall dorkiness aside, the overarching narrative is about Bong-soon’s war against a serial killer, who soon turns into her nemesis. But he is not just another goon she can pick up and chuck into the nearest wall. He is a spider who plots, who knows about the only chink in her armor, and she must employ all her resources to defeat him once and for all. 

7) Hello, Me!

Would your 15-year-old self be proud of you? This is the uncomfortable and existential-crisis-inducing question around which this odd, excellent show is centered. The story is about Ban Ha-ni. Defeated and cynical, she finds herself face to face with her young and exuberant self again. The latter is thoroughly disappointed in her. Together, they learn and grow as the younger Ban Ha-ni teaches her older self all about joy and hope again. 

8) Tomorrow

Choi Jun-Woong is good at a lot of things. But what he sucks at is landing a job. Rejected by one company after the other and fighting depression, he finds himself in a coma while trying to save a person from committing suicide. This is how he gets recruited by one of the biggest companies in the universe — the one that handles everything to do with the afterlife. Jun-Woong becomes part of the afterlife squad that tries to stop people from committing suicide and has the honor of witnessing some of the most beautiful, heartwarming, and soul-shattering stories unfold.

9) Oh My Ghost

If you are like me, this one may be an uncomfortable watch at first. This is a story about a ghost. She is also the female lead who is convinced that she is stuck on earth because she is a virgin. So, she keeps possessing women and throwing herself at every man she meets. Except none of them can quite survive her ghostly touch. I found the first half of the series slightly cringy and more than a little uncomfortable. But the second half more than made up for it as it explores the tragic reality behind the girl’s death even as she falls for the one man who may survive her touch.

The show-stealer for me was the OST, though. Sung by Park Bo-Young (main lead) herself, it’s a lullaby about lost loves and goodbyes that may have you reaching for a tissue or two.

10) Extraordinary You

Everyone loves to think that they are the protagonist of their own story. So, what if one day you discover that you are not just a secondary character, but the entire world as you know it is fictional? This is exactly what happens to Eun Dan-oh, who finds, much to her shock, that she is but a mere secondary character in a comic. So, she starts doing everything in her power to change the events and take control of her life. But can she ever truly escape what is already written? Can the created take on the creator and emerge victorious?

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Squid Game’s second season finale was one of the biggest cliffhangers in the history of television, setting the stage for a massive conclusion Seong Gi-Hun’s current current life-or-death adventure and the series as a whole. In recent days, Netflix has released a new trailer hinting at what is to come in the grand finale and once again, no one is safe. Of the many conflicts that are sure to arise in the upcoming third season hitting the streaming service this summer, there is one that might be the most heart-wrenching. From the recent trailer, a mother-son conflict might be on the way and I don’t know if my heart can take it.

One of the biggest pairs of new characters introduced in Squid Game season two was the mother-son pairing, Geum-ja and Yong-sik. The mother and son joined the terrifying contest to help clear Yong-sik’s gambling debts, but the family had little idea about one another becoming a part of the game. While Geum-ja has been putting her life on the line time and again to help her son survive, the same couldn’t be said for Yong-sik. During one specific Squid Game contest, Mingle, the son left his mother to die in an effort to save his own life. While Geum-ja would survive, the cracks were beginning to show in the relationship between the two and it seems as though season three might turn the screws on the former bond.

[RELATED: Squid Game Season 3 Trailer Debuts First Look at Final Episodes]

The Doomed Mother And Son

Thanks to the big twist of the second Squid Game we’ve seen so far, contestants can effectively vote to stop the contest at any time, though they would be sacrificing potential monetary gains in doing so. While the life-or-death contest we witnessed in season one only had one winner, it is possible that those who survive can bring their journey to an end though things aren’t looking good in this regard. We still don’t know what games will make up the third and final season but the odds of both Yong-sik and Geum-ja surviving aren’t looking good, especially considering they were barely able to survive the previous season.

In an interview with outlet Entertainment Weekly last year, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk discussed “This time around, I wanted to bring in an even closer pair and just having the Host look and observe, ‘How will they survive? How will they move on to each game?’ I thought that would be a very intriguing addition.” When it came to the pivotal moment that saw a son betray his mother, Dong-hyuk explained how the Mingle scene needed to be just right, “We shot this scene over, and over, and over again, take after take… And in my personal life, I am very distant from my own mom. My mom in reality is very ferocious and scary — we don’t have the type of relationship where we share our inner thoughts or feelings, so it was strange to have that on set and to be able to act in a way that these two people have that relationship. Doing that was difficult, being able to express that in a truthful way, because that isn’t actually my lived reality.”

A Mother And Son Divided

Squid Game, at its heart, is a commentary on our capitalistic society and how debt can destroy the lives of those who can’t find a way out of it. Even when it comes to families, the divide established by money can be a big one and luckily, the Netflix series has well-documented this fact in Yong-sik and Geum-ja. As the contestant pool dwindles, this conflict between the pair has been one of the most interesting parts of the previous season and we’re sure it will be the same in the upcoming return. Since we don’t expect either of these two contestants to be the ultimate victor, it appears like a foregone conclusion that the relationship is destined for heartbreak.

Want to stay in the loop when it comes to the life-or-death game’s grand finale? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Squid Game and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

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Squid Game will be returning to Netflix for its third and final season later this Summer, and the first trailer has been released for its final episodes. Squid Game is one of Netflix’s most popular television series currently streaming with the platform, and its success has been one surprise after another. Not only did the Korean drama series debut with an explosive first season that instantly made waves with fans around the world, but that success seemed to be even bigger with the second season of the series that finally released late last year. But now it’s all going to end.

Ahead of Squid Game’s second season, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk shared a special message with fans that confirmed that the show would be ending in two more seasons. The second season would kick off the climax of Gi-Hun’s story through his second attempt at the deadly survival game, and now it’s time for the final season to bring that story to an end later this Summer. The first trailer for Squid Game Season 3 gives fans the first look at its final episodes, and you can check it out in the video above.

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 will be bringing it all to an end with Netflix on June 27th. It’s yet to be revealed how many episodes the final season will be running for, but it will be picking up after that massive cliffhanger at the end of the second season. Surviving members of the cast will be returning for their respective roles in the final episodes, and it’s already been teased that the games will be kicking right back despite the attempt to stop them by Gi-Hun and the others. In fact, they are likely going to be taking a much different kind of shape now.

As for why Squid Game’s finale was spread across these final two seasons, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk previously opened up about his thought process, “When I first wrote the story of Seasons 2 and 3 it was one long story arc.” Elaborating further he stated, “And I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season…And so I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third.”

RELATED: Squid Game 3: Everything We Know About the Final Season

How Is Squid Game Going to End?

As for how Squid Game is going to end, it’s likely that not everyone is going to make it out alive. The shift in format to the series in the second season allowed fans to get attached to even more characters than the first time around, so it’s going to hit even harder when many of them die before the grand finale. With the post-credits scene from Squid Game’s Season 2 finale teasing that the games were going to immediately continue despite Gi-Hun’s efforts, there’s going to be a lot more pain and loss before it ends.

There’s a good chance that Gi-Hun himself might be the only one to make it to the end of the season alive as he fights through another deadly game, but he’s not going to be as motivated to survive as someone who’s going through all of this the first time. He’s likely going to have to make an unthinkable choice, and that’s going to be the game that the Front Man keeps playing with Gi-Hun before the show can end. But we’ll see for ourselves later this Summer.

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Squid Game fans have been eagerly waiting on the third and final season of the saga to hit later this Summer, and the Netflix series is going to be revealing new updates very soon. Squid Game Season 2 made its debut late last year and quickly became even more of a success than the first season. It was quite a shock considering how long of a wait it’s been since that first season’s debut, and even more shocking thanks to the cliffhanger that fans were left off of as we all wait for the final episodes to hit later this year.

Squid Game Season 3 was announced alongside the second season of the series. It was confirmed that series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk would be considering the third season as the final season of Gi-Hun’s story overall, and fans have been curious to see how it’s all going to end. We’re about to see even more soon as Netflix has announced their line up for the upcoming TUDUM 2025 event on May 31st (where One Piece Season 2 will also be shown), and confirmed that Squid Game Season 3 will be showing off something new during it all.

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 will be premiering on June 27th with Netflix. It will serve as the final season of the series, and will be picking up immediately after that massive cliffhanger from the second season. It’s yet to be revealed how many episodes the new season will last for, but it’s likely going to be explosive either way. While there have been previously revealed first look images, Netflix’s TUDUM 2025 update could be one of the biggest yet with a potential teaser or even a full trailer coming out way considering how soon the final episodes will actually be hitting.

Lee Jung-jae and Lee Byung-hun will be returning as Seung Gi-Hun and the Front Man respectively along with many of the other surviving characters seen at the end of the second season. Despite Gi-Hun’s efforts to disrupt the game, however, the post-credits scene from the Season 2 finale had teased that the games are going to immediately continue when Season 3 airs. Which likely also means that there aren’t going to be many survivors when the show actually comes to an end despite fans’ love for them.

RELATED: No, Squid Game Won’t Be Bringing Back Thanos Anytime Soon

Is Squid Game Really Going to End?

Gi-Hun’s story might be coming to an end with Squid Game Season 3, but it’s likely not going to be the end of the franchise as a whole. Not only is there a currently in the works second season of the reality game show, Squid Game: The Challenge (which has yet to reveal any major updates since it was announced either), but David Fincher is reportedly now working on an English version of Squid Game at the moment at well. Even its original creator hasn’t ruled out spinoffs.

“When we were doing season one, I was saying there was never going to be another season,” Hwang Dong-hyuk stated in an interview following Squid Game Season 2’s premiere. “And so if the time comes, and it just so happens that I’m able to come up with a character or a different story, then maybe there might be a comeback,” Hwang continued. “But I’m thinking more along the lines of a spinoff.” Squid Game has been such a massive hit for Netflix that we’ll see the beginning of the end of later this Spring with these coming updates, and it still likely won’t be the end.

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Netflix has no shortage of hit shows to watch, and though bingeable dramas may dominate, there’s still room for action too. The streaming service’s action and adventure TV section features some renowned titles — both Netflix originals and those that come from other networks. From classics like Lost and The Walking Dead, to more recent standout shows such as The Gentlemen and The Umbrella Academy, Netflix’s wide selection of action TV contains something that will appeal to all audiences. Given the broadness of the action genre, this array of shows features many different sub-genres like crime and historical drama. There exists no shortage of compelling TV shows on Netflix, and those who seek the thrill of action will find something to scratch that explosive itch they may have.

Narcos

Narcos is crime drama at its finest, and it features plenty of invigorating action to enhance all of the investigations and politics. Based on true events surrounding Pablo Escobar and other real-life Colombian drug lords from the 1970s to 1990s, the Netflix series dually fixates on both the drug operations and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) efforts to track them down. All three seasons of Narcos are absolutely riveting, and exceptional performances from Wagner Moura and Pedro Pascal highlight an all-around fantastic ensemble cast. The show maintains a high level of intensity and brutality through epic chases, gunfights, and other high-stakes missions.

Squid Game

Those in search of a show with an inventive premise and sharp social commentary should look no further than Squid Game. Netflix’s most-watched series centers on a dystopian South Korean competition that brings hundreds of financially troubled contestants together to compete in a series of lethal games in hopes of winning an enormous sum of money. Squid Game‘s gruesome nature and unrelenting action keeps viewers glued to their screens, while commanding performances from Lee Jung-jae and others effortlessly bring the show’s character arcs to life. Far more than mindless violence, Squid Game blatantly critiques class disparity, particularly in South Korea, though this theme easily resonates with people from everywhere across the globe. After two seasons, Squid Game has cemented itself as a once-in-a-generation work of television.

Black Sails

Pirates battle for treasure and freedom in Black Sails, and its nothing short of captivating. The Starz original series takes place in the early 18th century on the Bahaman island of New Providence, where tumultuous power struggle threatens pirates’ liberty to plunder and cash in as they please. Functioning as a prequel to Treasure Island, Black Sails includes numerous renditions of real-life pirates, such as Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and Anne Bonny. The show’s fascinating band of characters engage in enthralling, and highly realistic, fight scenes on both land and sea. As a result, Black Sails‘ impeccable drama is enlivened by heart-pounding action at every turn, and it is a thrill to watch. All four seasons of Black Sails radiate this fierce spirit of adventure that all fans of pirates and action will love.

Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders perfectly blends the genres of crime, period drama, psychological thriller and action. Set in Birmingham, England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Peaky Blinders chronicles the endeavors of Tommy Shelby, the titular gang’s leader. Although the show’s six seasons only amount to 36 episodes, Peaky Blinders is an incredibly immersive viewing experience thanks to its layered characters, top-notch cinematography, and brutal fight scenes. Cillian Murphy delivers a tour-de-force in the lead role, and the remainder of Peaky Blinder’s cast members are at the top of their game. The tension and exhilaration that comes with watching Peaky Blinders demands to be felt by every TV lover.

The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom is the right choice for viewers enticed by terrific action set in the far past. Netflix’s TV adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories novels follows Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon raised by Danes who sets out to reclaim his birthright in 9th and 10th-century England. The Last Kingdom‘s exciting battles feature swords, shields, and the like. Violent and engrossing, the series sees its main character fight with giant armies and engage in one-on-one combat. Moreover, The Last Kingdom‘s historical setting is created with great attention to detail, and Alexander Dreymon offers a memorable interpretation of Uhtred.

[RELATED: 7 Best Shows on Netflix You Didn’t Know Were Streaming]

The Pacific

Even 15 years after its release, HBO’s The Pacific ranks among the best scripted war series of all time. The limited series chronicles the journeys of several real-life U.S. Marines involved in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Pacific follows its characters on and away from the battlefield, highlighting the joy of getting a break from the slaughter, as well as hardship of returning to civilian life after the war. Gory and highly unnerving at times, the show’s combat sequences are truly harrowing and put together with remarkable realism. It’s hard to recall many other war story that bring the same level of vivid action and emotional stakes as The Pacific, which has certainly achieved a similar status to its sister-show, Band of Brothers.

Gangs of London

The ruthlessness of organized crime enters the modern age in Gangs of London, as the show focuses on the deadly power struggle among gangs in England’s most populous city. With an alluring and expertly-performed array of characters, Gangs of London follows a riveting narrative across its two released seasons. Filled with plenty of shocking plot twists and heart-pounding action, Gangs of London might contain too much graphic violence for some audiences, but for those who can stomach a massive amount of blood and gore will revel in the show’s countless fight scenes.

Arcane

Among the best video game adaptations of all time, Netflix’s Arcane features exhilarating set pieces that easily rival live-action shows. Arcane takes place in the League of Legends universe and revolves around two sisters at the center of a large-scale conflict between different realms of society. Boasting an engaging story spearheaded by superbly-developed characters, Arcane‘s major action set pieces are saturated with emotion and satisfyingly climactic. Even those unfamiliar with League of Legends or who don’t usually opt for animated projects will grow infatuated with Arcane. The series contains just two seasons, but it offers a thrill ride audiences won’t soon forget.

Bodyguard

Fans of classic spy thrillers should immediately put this one on their watchlist. The limited series centers on David Budd, a British Army veteran who a politician enlists as her protection officer. Richard Madden shines as the main character, and Bodyguard‘s six-episode story arc takes a number of surprising turns. The series addresses relevant themes such as PTSD and government surveillance, however Bodyguard‘s substance doesn’t get in the way of its exciting action sequences. There are mysteries to solve, enemies to catch, and loads of more electrifying missions at the heart of Bodyguard, and action lovers will enjoy it all.

Vikings

A year ago, Vikings made the transition from Prime Video to Netflix, and it has become one of the streamer’s best available shows. The historical drama follows Ragnar Lothbrok and his family as they each resolve to achieve power and glory in their own way. Vikings boasts a ton of compelling character arcs and dynamics, but the series is most potently defined by its breathtaking battles involving Vikings and Saxons. The violence in Vikings takes on an extreme level of brutality, as warriors use swords, spears, axes, and gruesome methods of torture to vanquish their foes. Moreover, Travis Fimmel’s portrayal of Ragnar remains an all-time TV performance, and Vikings provides enough tension, drama, and excitement to captivate audiences for six full seasons. Every lover of history and action needs to experience Vikings.

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The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is now available on bookshelves, but fans will have to wait more than a year for the movie adaptation. Telling the story of Haymitch Abernathy’s bout in the 50th annual Hunger Games, the new prequel underscores the lengths Panem’s oppressive Capitol takes to ensure its control over the 12 districts through propaganda and censorship. The Hunger Games franchise, fixating on the tribute-turned-revolutionary Katniss Everdeen in the original trilogy, can be compared to numerous other works about dystopian societies. Thus, those who love The Hunger Games may be on the hunt for a great TV series to dive into ahead of the Sunrise on the Reaping film’s release in 2026.

These five TV series contain similar qualities to the Hunger Games franchise, and fans should add them to their watchlist now.

Squid Game

In Netflix’s Squid Game, gambling addict Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae) and hundreds of financially troubled individuals partake in a series of games, hoping to win a large sum of money. What the participants don’t know is that losing means certain death. The brutal contest at the heart of Squid Game‘s narrative, as well as the show’s commentary on South Korea’s societal wealth gap, immediately draw comparisons to the Hunger Games franchise. The story sees contestants build alliances and learn how to survive the overbearing Front Man’s deadly tricks. Similar to the second Hunger Games book and movie Catching Fire, Squid Game Season 2 takes its main character through the competition again, but this time with a rebellious twist. All in all, Squid Game tells a gripping tale about class inequality that fans of The Hunger Games will enjoy.

Silo

Silo differs from The Hunger Games in that it doesn’t revolve around an organized fight to the death, but survival in the Apple TV+ show’s authoritarian society strikingly mirrors the events of Mockingjay, the Hunger Games franchise’s final installment. Based on the book series by Hugh Howey, Silo takes place in a dystopian future when humans live in underground silos to escape toxic air on Earth’s surface. Within the silos, social hierarchy dictates people’s lives, and many secrets about the silos’ creation and true purpose are hidden from the masses. Silo‘s central character Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) evolves from an ordinary mechanical engineer to the spark of rebellion in an arc that feels remarkably similar to that of Katniss in the Hunger Games novels and films. Riveting and thought-provoking throughout its two released seasons, Silo is one of the best shows on TV, and every Hunger Games fan needs to watch it.

[RELATED – The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Movie Is Facing This Make-or-Break Challenge]

The 100

The 100‘s post-apocalyptic narrative involves a group of teenagers sent from outer space to determine if the Earth is habitable enough for humans to return. An adaptation of Kass Morgan’s series of novels, the CW show depicts a premise that may not seem all that similar to The Hunger Games on a surface level, but the delinquent newcomers engage in a divide-and-conquer battle for survival after arriving on Earth and discovering numerous surviving civilizations. The 100‘s compelling plot threads over its seven seasons illustrate a massive power struggle, with predominantly young people serving as casualties to war and cruelty. Accordingly, the series will easily satisfy Hunger Games fanatics’ craving for dystopian fiction.

Yellowjackets

Another show about teens fighting to survive in the wilderness, Yellowjackets follows a traveling girls’ soccer team that crash-lands in a remote region of Canada, prompting a grueling series of events as they endure the elements. The Showtime series alternates between its main characters’ struggle to stay alive in the present and their lives 25 years in the future. Rife with fascinating character arcs and shocking narrative twists, Yellowjackets ranks among the greatest running shows on TV. Having aired three seasons thus far, the show features plenty of harrowing moments that can easily compare to The Hunger Games‘ brutal arena fights to the death. Those who love the Hunger Games books and movies should check out Yellowjackets for its tale about survival under impossible circumstances.

3%

An underrated Netflix original series, 3% boasts a multitude of similarities to the Hunger Games franchise. The show takes place in a dystopian Brazil, where young adults in an impoverished region of the country participate in an intense competition known as The Process to gain access to an exclusive, upscale part of society. Many of the contestants die, and only a tiny portion succeed — hence the show’s title. 3% features loads of social commentary on wealth, privilege, and authoritarianism. The series takes a number of surprising narrative turns, keeping viewers glued to the screen across each of the four seasons. Fans of The Hunger Games in search of a TV show with a comparable premise should watch 3% while waiting for Sunrise on the Reaping to hit theaters.

All of these shows are available to stream across various platforms.

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A Korean Drama, aka K-Drama, was the second most watched Netflix TV show when sorting by hours watched in 2024, second to only Bridgerton Season 3. In the process, it beat out the massive release of Squid Game Season 2. While the second season of Squid Game attracted more viewers, it only posted 619,000,000 of hours watched, down substantially from the K-Drama in question, which posted 860,400,000 hours watched in 2024.

To match this, the Netflix K-Drama has great scores on Rotten Tomatoes as well. More specifically, it has a 100 percent score with critics, though its audience score is a bit lower at just 71 percent. For the sake of comparison, Squid Game has scores of 89 percent and 73 percent, respectively.

The TV show, for those interested is Queen of Tears, is a romance drama series with comedic elements that debuted last year. It is notably the most-watched Korean series on Netflix of all time. In addition to this, it surpassed fellow K-Drama Crash Landing on You as the highest-rated tvN series of all time. Suffice to say, it is immensely popular, and currently streaming on Netflix right now.

Written by Park Ji-eun, directed by Jang Young-woo and Kim Hee-won, and starring Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Ji-won, and Park Sung-hoon, it features 16 episodes, all of which range from about 80 to 90 minutes, minus the finale, which is closer to two hours.

“The queen of department stores and her small-town husband weather a marital crisis —until love miraculously begins to bloom again,” reads an official elevator pitch of the TV series on Netflix.

RELATED: Netflix Users Have Less Than 24 Hours to Watch One of the Best Movies of the 2010s

For those interested there is an English dub, but it is horrific. The best way to watch Queen of Tears, and the way most enjoy it, is with English subtitles. For those not familiar with reading subtitles, it can take a little to get used to, but doesn’t take too long.

Those who have never checked out a K-Drama, but are interested in diving into the growing genre, Queen of Tears is the best place to start as the most popular K-Drama to date. The aforementioned Crash Landing on You, which came out in 2019, is also a great starting place.

For more coverage on all things Netflix — including all of the latest news, rumors, and leaks pertaining to all Netflix TV shows and movies — click here.

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No, for as much as fans might want to see him in action again, Squid Game won’t be bringing back Thanos the rapper any time soon. Squid Game Season 2 made its debut last year with almost even more popularity than the first season, and a lot of the success for the new episodes came as a result of all of the new characters in the mix of the death games this time around. These characters had much fuller personalities than those seen in the first season, and some even enjoyed playing the games themselves known that life-changing money was on the line.

But some of these new characters enjoyed the situation a bit too much as Squid Game Season 2 introduced fans to the rapper named Thanos, who had purposefully named himself after the Infinity Stones collecting Marvel villain. Played by Choi Seung-hyun in the series, unfortunately the character doesn’t make it to the end of the season alive. But for as much as fans want to somehow see this character beat the odds and come back for more games in the final season, that’s just not going to happen.

Squid Game’s Deaths are Largely Permanent

One prevailing theory that has really been gaining traction with fans is that Thanos somehow survived his death in the second season, and will be rejoining the games in some way in Squid Game Season 3. The idea of someone like Thanos being able to keep playing these games despite a fatal looking wound would be fun to watch, but unfortunately it would completely wreck the reality of the series. When a death is fully shown on screen, it is never reversed. There are some loopholes as some characters have returned following presumed deaths, but deaths are largely the end for characters and their stories.

Squid Game is set within a relatively grounded world, so bringing back a character like Thanos just because he was popular with fans would wreck all of the care that has been put into setting up this world so far. Thanos himself even stood out a bit at first because he was such a wacky addition, and was thus already teetering on the edge of maybe breaking the immersion for fans wanting to fully dive into this bleak world. So when his death comes with a fork to the neck, it’s a harsh bringing back down to reality.

RELATED: Netflix Previews Its Next Squid Game (And It’s Very Different)

Squid Game Season 3’s Story Is Already Set

Ahead of Squid Game Season 2’s release, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that he chose to break the story into two final seasons while writing out these final episodes. It’s here that fans should realize that the story is already set for the final episodes, and thus is likely not going to change even if fans are demanding a character like Thanos to return. Thanos has served his purpose in the story, and has died before the climax because there is likely a much more intense finale in store for Seung Gi-Hun and the others.

Even Thanos actor Choi Seung-hyun thought that Thanos’ purposed was served as well, and even deserved to die in the way he did. Revealing in an interview that he felt that Thanos’ “death was quite timely” and that he “also thought he deserved to die.” Thanos’ death served as a major shock because it was outside of the games, and it only works because it’s a permanent fate for a character who seemed like they were going to have a bigger role. That’s part of the tragedy of the situation overall, and therefore there’s no way he’ll come back in the final season.

Squid Game Season 3 releases with Netflix on June 27th, so we’ll see for ourselves soon enough.

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As fans wait for the third and final season of Netflix’s biggest series of all time, many fans are wondering how the streaming service will continue to capitalize on Squid Game. While creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has hinted at the idea that he is open to spin-offs of the live-or-death game in the future, a fourth season for the main storyline seems unlikely. Luckily, Netflix is already preparing for what might be a new torch bearer for Squid Game as a new preview highlights a very different death battle arriving later this year. Last Samurai Standing might take place in the past but the latest preview is one that hints at a storyline that might be darker than that of the Squid Game.

Last Samurai Standing takes place as a period drama in which three hundred samurai warriors gather in a temple in Kyoto, Japan. Much like Squid Game, the upcoming live-action series’ premise is one where the winner of the death game will receive a financial reward as the last warrior to survive will receive a “100 billion yen” prize. At present, the big reveal for the series dropping on Netflix this November hasn’t released a trailer but the streaming service has given us our first image from the series that you can check out below.

[RELATED: Netflix’s Squid Game Season 3 Is Missing Out on Its Best Character]

Last Squid Standing

Netflix took the first look to the outlet Variety, with the publication having the chance to chat with Netflix Japan’s head of content, Kaata Sakamoto. Here’s what Sakamoto had to say when it came to Last Samurai Standing, “When most people think about samurai, they think about this very glamorous period in Japanese history. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that, towards the end of the Edo period, the samurai lost a lot of their glamour and their power. ‘Last Samurai Standing’ is about what would happen if these warriors — the toughest and best in Japan — all of a sudden became common people and had to fight for their lives. Think ‘Shōgun’ meets Squid Game.”

This preview is released in tandem with the tenth anniversary of Netflix Japan, with Sakamoto committing to creating stories that have never been seen before, “We’re dedicated to creating never-before-seen stories by collaborating with Japan’s top creators and emerging talent with innovative ideas.”

Squid Game’s Final Season

Squid Game’s second season ended on quite the cliffhanger, as protagonist Seong Gi-hun found himself unable to successfully lead a rebellion against those who were running the nefarious competition. With season three set to arrive this summer on June 27th, viewers are wondering how Seong’s story will end and how the main series could potentially be setting the stage for future spin-offs. Regardless of where Squid Game’s future takes it, it’s impossible to deny that the South Korean story is one that has had a major impact on the world of pop culture since its debut.

Want to stay in the loop for all the latest on the life-or-death Netflix series? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for everything Squid Game related and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

Via Variety

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Squid Game will be returning to Netflix for its third and final season later this Summer, and unfortunately it’s going to be missing out on its best character after they were killed off in Season 2. Squid Game made its return to Netflix last year with its highly anticipated second season, and it was just as popular as the first season (and even more so in many cases). A lot of this popularity was due to all of the new characters in the deadly games themselves with more flashy and varied personalities than were seen in the first season. The biggest example of which was Thanos.

Squid Game Season 2 introduced fans to the rapper Thanos, who was in the deadly games thanks to all of the debt he accrued after investing in a cryptocurrency scheme. The character not only stood out to fans for how absurdly he was approaching the life or death games, but also stood out thanks to actor Choi Seung-hyun’s distinct performance. But towards the end of the season, he was killed. Thus this final season is going to be missing out on the element that might have struck a chord with fans the most.

Squid Game Season 3 Is Missing Out on Thanos

With Thanos being killed off in between games (and even ahead of Gi-Hun’s revolution in the final episode), it really added an element of surprise to Squid Game Season 2 heading into its climax. He had been such a presence on screen that the series was seemingly building to him meeting his end during the games in some kind of grand fashion, so subverting that expectation by giving him such a non-glamorous death instead. It was something that fans would not expect from someone who named themselves after a major Marvel villain.

Squid Game is one of the most popular series of all time, and Season 2 is almost just as popular as the first season. It’s wild considering the scale of just how many people around the world have seen both of the seasons, and that means there was just a lot of general conversations to be had. Thanos naturally acted as a lightning rod for this conversation as not only was casting Choi met with some backlash (due to being arrested in the past), but he also inspired many of the viral videos, compilations, and remarks following the end of the second season. So that energy isn’t going to be matched by the finale.

Squid Game Season 3 Faces an Uphill Battle Now

Without a character like Thanos easily drawing attention, fans are going to be looking ahead to the end of the Squid Game story overall. It’s likely going to be a compelling one, but it’s going to miss out on the fun of adding new characters with their own fanbases like in Season 2. It’s directly continuing the story from the end of the second season, and is likely going to be a lot more serious as things need to wrap up satisfactorily. A character like Thanos would have stood out like more of a sore thumb in that case.

Even Thanos actor Choi Seung-hyun felt like the character “deserved” to die when he did stating in a recent interview with Netflix, “Thanos is someone who is under the influence of drugs…He’s a dangerous character. So when I first read how he dies in the script, I honestly thought that it was about time. I thought his death was quite timely, and I also thought he deserved to die.” The character just wouldn’t have fit with where the series is heading in its final episodes.

But even if he would have posed a mechanical problem for Squid Game, missing out on Thanos means that the final season will not have one of the biggest reasons fans loved the second season. It’s going to need to work a lot harder without this fan favorite, so we’ll see how it all works out when Squid Game Season 3 makes its debut with Netflix on June 27th.

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Thanos was undoubtedly the most divisive new character introduced in Squid Game Season 2, and even the star behind the character thought he “deserved” to die before Season 3 kicks in. Squid Game made its highly anticipated return for Season 2 last year, and it was quickly an even bigger hit for Netflix than the first season. A lot of the fanfare surrounding the new episodes was thanks to all of the new faces in the mix for the deadly children’s games this time around. Including a rapper with a shadowy past that was loving the games a little too much for comfort.

Thanos really elicited the biggest response from Squid Game Season 2’s episodes, but the biggest reaction came with the reveal of his ultimate fate. Being killed off during a fight in between games instead of the games themselves, and outside of Gi-Hun’s rebellion towards the end of the season, Thanos actor Choi Seung-hyun (also known as the rapper T.O.P.) explained to Netflix’s Tudum that when he first read the script he felt that Thanos “deserved” to die and it was “about time” that it happened.

Thanos Actor Reacts to His Death in Squid Game Season 2

“Thanos is someone who is under the influence of drugs,” Choi began when asked about Thanos dying in Squid Game Season 2. “He’s a dangerous character. So when I first read how he dies in the script, I honestly thought that it was about time. I thought his death was quite timely, and I also thought he deserved to die.” As for how seemingly random it seemed in the context of the series, Choi also believed that its random timing helped the impact of the death overall, “I was also actually very thankful to the director and the team, because they portrayed Thanos’ death at a very random time in the story. That made it that much more impactful.”

When asked what he thought Thanos would have done if he had lived until Gi-Hun started fighting back at the end of the season, Choi joked, “Based on my interpretation of him, Thanos would probably be dancing with the pink soldiers.” But at the end of the day, Choi is also thankful for all of the support fans have shown him since his debut in Season 2, “Honestly, I didn’t get around to looking them up myself, but I have a lot of memes and whatnot sent to me from people in my life. Sometimes director Hwang sends me Thanos memes, too. Watching them, I am in awe of how creative everybody is. I’m deeply grateful for all the support that you all have shown Thanos.”

RELATED: Netflix’s Latest Squid Game Season 3 Image Reveals What’s Next For Gi-hun

Why Thanos Was the Way He Was

In opening up about his performance as Thanos, Choi explained his approach as such, “Very simply speaking, Thanos is someone who’s heavily reliant on drugs, and that’s what led him to his fall. I tried to create a contrast between who he is –– before he’s under [the influence of] drugs, and after. Because the drugs that he takes are so intense and very strong.” But there’s even a deeper layer of anxiety underneath it all as well.

“Before he’s under the influence, Thanos experiences intense anxiety,” Choi continued. “He’s really nervous, and his true self is someone who gets easily scared. However, when he’s under the influence of the drugs, he’s basically no longer himself, right?” These added layers further complicate Thanos as a character, and further showcases why he was such a hit with fans in his debut. As for the Thanos-less Squid Game Season 3, it will be premiering with Netflix on June 27th.

via TUDUM

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Netflix has unveiled a striking new image from Squid Game Season 3, showing protagonist Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) handcuffed to a dormitory bed within the game facility. This first look at the final season provides a dramatic indication of how the series plans to conclude its story, with its main character now entirely at the mercy of the organization he sought to destroy. The image marks a significant shift in the power dynamic of Netflix’s most successful series, suggesting the games’ administrators have developed a new strategy for handling their most persistent adversary. As series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has confirmed, this concluding chapter will provide closure to Season 2’s storyline. However, the protagonist’s current situation suggests his fight against the system may take an unexpected turn.

The new Squid Game image reveals the immediate aftermath of Season 2’s failed revolution, where Gi-hun’s attempted uprising against the games ended in bloodshed following the Front Man’s (Lee Byung-hun) brutal execution of his friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). Rather than eliminate their troublesome former champion, the games’ organizers have opted for containment. While it would be easy to simply dispose of Gi-hun, the goal seems to be breaking his spirit and proving that the game’s twisted moral justification is valid.

[RELATED: Squid Game: I Need These 7 Crazy Kids Games to Be in the Remake]

By keeping Gi-hun alive for Season 3 of Squid Game, the Front Man will probably force him to witness another round of the deadly competition. Hwang has previously explained that the final two seasons were conceived as one extended narrative. However, the story grew too big for the intended 10 episodes, leading Hwang to split it into two eight-episode parts, with Season 2’s cliffhanger specifically designed to lead into Season 3. That means we can expect to learn precisely what’s happening in the new image once the new season premieres.

Season 3 of Squid Game Is Not the End for the Franchise

While Season 3 of Squid Game concludes Gi-hun’s story, Hwang has teased potential spinoffs set within the same universe. In recent interviews, Hwang revealed he’s open to exploring new characters and storylines, but only if the ideas develop naturally rather than being forced. Netflix also plans to continue the franchise with or without his direct involvement as an advisor or co-creator. This expansion is already underway, with David Fincher developing an American adaptation and a second season of Squid Game: The Challenge in production.

Given the series’ reception, it’s no wonder that Netflix is trying to squeeze as much money from it as possible. Season 1 became Netflix’s most-watched series ever with 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first 28 days, while Season 2 shattered records with 68 million views in its first four days alone. The show’s cultural impact extends beyond viewership numbers, with the series winning numerous accolades, including six Emmy Awards for its first season and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Lee Jung-jae, making him the first male actor from a non-English language series to win the award.

Squid Game Season 3 premieres globally on Netflix on June 27th. What do you think will happen in Season 3? Share your favorite theories in the comments below!

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Squid Game is ready to make its comeback to Netflix with the third and final season of the series later this Summer, and it’s teasing the return of some of its worst characters before it all comes to an end. Squid Game returned for its highly anticipated second season at the end of 2024, and it quickly became one of the most watched seasons of Netflix of all time. Just like the first season, response to Squid Game Season 2 has been positive with both critics and fans. Maybe in some aspects, it was received even better in the second season.

One of the better elements from Squid Game Season 2 was actually something that was missing entirely. The most divisive episode from the very well received first season of the series was the debut of the VIPs making their bets on everything happening in the games themselves. They felt so out of the world that it almost ruined the watching experience, so when they didn’t return in the new season it was a welcome breath of fresh air. Which is why it seems surprising that Squid Game is teasing their return for the final season.

Is Squid Game Bringing Back the VIPs?

In one of the first look images from Squid Game Season 3 released by Netflix, the Front Man is clearly in the VIP room that was in the first season. Due to the blurring of the rest of the area around him, it’s unclear if the VIPs are there in the room with him, but it’s a dangerous tease for the final episodes. The VIPs nearly ruined fans’ perception of that first season of the series as their debut episode seemed to toss out the good will and world building from the rest of it, and the final season would be taking a step backwards to bring them back.

But there is a potential bright side to bringing them back in the final season of Squid Game, however, if they get their just desserts. Part of the anger at seeing the VIPs the first time around was that Gi-Hun was nowhere near the same realm. Despite everything he would do in the game, he’d never be able to solve the real problem. But with everything he tried at the end of Season 2, it does seem like there’s a much grander plan at play for the games themselves. If Gi-Hun is able to bring down the games, then bringing down the VIPs comes right along with it. It’s a return that wouldn’t be as bad as their first time around.

RELATED: Squid Game Creator Teases More After Season 3 (But There’s a Catch)

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Thankfully it won’t be too much longer before we get to see how Squid Game ends as Season 3 of the series will be making its worldwide debut with Netflix on June 27th. It’s yet to be revealed how many episodes this final season will be running for, but it’s got quite a lot to pick up from with the end of the second season. Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk previously opened up about turning this final story into two seasons, “When I first wrote the story of Seasons 2 and 3 it was one long story arc.”

Elaborating further, “And I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.” He even brought the second season to its end with its cliffhanger to give this part of Gi-Hun’s arc closure, “And so I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third.”

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Lee Joo-Sil, star of Squid Game, The Uncanny Counter and more, has died at the age of 81. As reported by The Chosun Ilbo in Korea, Lee passed away at her family home in Uijeongbu at the age of 81 due to stomach cancer. Lee had been diagnosed with stomach cancer last November, and revealed that she had fought cancer many years before. As reported by Deadline, Lee’s funeral service is currently scheduled for February 5th at Sinchon Severance Hospital in South Korea. In that report as well, it was detailed that Lee was previously diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer over 30 years ago and was only given a year’s worth of time life, but overcame that.

Lee Joo-Sil will likely be recognized by fans who watched quite a lot of live-action Korean dramas on Netflix. The streaming service is host to many of her starring roles such as Squid Game, in which she plays Hwang Jun-Ho’s mother, or The Uncanny Counter, where she starred as So Mun’s grandmother. But that’s only scratching the surface of her many decades long career which includes multiple TV shows, movies and more before her passing.

RELATED: Squid Game Shares First Look At Season 3 With Its Release Date

R.I.P. Lee Joo-Sil (1944-2025)

Lee Joo-Sil can be seen in Squid Game as Hwang Jun-Ho (Wi Ha-Joon) and Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun)’s mother, Park Mal-soon. She was revealed to be quite the caring mother who was worried about both of her sons as they have been caught within the chaos of Squid Game‘s two season run thus far. She has plenty of experience with these rougher kind of experiences in live-action dramas, however, as fan can also see her in The Uncanny Counter, where she plays So Mun’s grandmother, who has a degenerative mental illness.

She’s got a ton of experience playing notable mothers in Korea media too as she was also briefly heard as the mother to fellow Squid Game star Gong Yoo’s Seok-Woo in Train to Busan. This is likely one of her most notable to fans outside of Korea as well, and fans can also check it out on Netflix along with episodes of Squid Game and The Uncanny Counter in order to celebrate her long life and career with breakout roles such as these. But there are plenty to enjoy.

ComicBook would like to extend our condolences to Lee Joo-Sil’s family, friends and loved ones in this very difficult time.

HT – Deadline

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Squid Game is gearing up to return later this Summer with its third and final season, but the creator behind it all teased that there could be a continuation down the line with a catch. Squid Game has been an explosive breakout hit for Netflix, and it’s come as a surprise as the Korean drama series quickly took over the world as fast as it did. It wasn’t just the first season that was a success either as Season 2 has been an even bigger hit for Netflix since it dropped last December. But soon it will all come to an end.

Squid Game might be ending Seung Gi-Hun’s story with Season 3 coming later this Summer, but the original series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk isn’t exactly ruling out continuing with more of the story after Season 3. There’s a bit of a catch to a continuation, however, as Hwang stated in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he’s thinking “more along the lines of a spinoff” with a new character’s story at the center for whatever could be coming next.

Could Squid Game Get a Spinoff?

Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has notably gone on record following the end of the first season that he didn’t have an idea then in mind for Season 2. But as the final season approaches, the creator then explained how the story for a Season 2 naturally spread into two parts for two full seasons bringing the story to an end. It seems that the writing process for the story has also opened up the creator to potentially exploring new characters and stories within this universe later, “When we were doing season one, I was saying there was never going to be another season,” Hwang stated to The Hollywood Reporter.

But the catch here is the fact that the creator wants to come up with a different character or story within this universe, and let the idea for a spinoff naturally come that way, “And so if the time comes, and it just so happens that I’m able to come up with a character or a different story, then maybe there might be a comeback,” Hwang continued. “But I’m thinking more along the lines of a spinoff.” In fact, Hwang has also been very adamant with previous interviews that Netflix is going to continue the Squid Game franchise with or without him at the center of it.

Squid Game Is Going to Continue Either Way

“I know Netflix has a plan [for more Squid Game]. They are not going to throw this idea away,” Hwang told The Wrap in an interview following Squid Game Season 2’s premiere. “Maybe I’ll be in one of those projects as an advisor or co-creator. Who knows?…But Season 3 is not going to be the end of the Squid Game universe.” These plans have already been revealed too with both an American version of the series in the works with David Fincher, and a second season of the reality game show competition, Squid Game: The Challenge.

But what fans would likely be looking for more is a proper continuation of the Squid Game universe from its creator. Depending on how Season 3 ends the story, there might still be a universe to explore after Gi-Hun’s day is done. But we’ll see for ourselves soon enough as Squid Game Season 3 is gearing up for its final season on June 27th with Netflix. After the finale, fans will be able to ask all sorts of questions about what could be coming next with that added context.

HT – THR

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Netflix has shared a new key image for the third season of Squid Game, foreshadowing what viewers can expect for the final set of episodes of the worldwide phenomenon. The second season had lead protagonist Seong Gi-hun trapped in another set of deadly games made for the viewing pleasure of rich benefactors. Gi-hun spends the majority of the season trying to get the Front Man, the mysterious overseer of the games. Squid Game Season 2 became another international hit, becoming one of Netflix’s most-watched seasons of television ever. The popularity of Squid Game has led to a surplus of merchandise and spin-offs, including Squid Game: The Challenge.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Squid Game Season 2!

At the end of Season 2, Gi-hun convinced a small group of players to start an uprising within the games, stealing guns from the guards and attempting to make their way to the control center. However, his uprising failed, and most of Gi-hun’s allies were gunned down, including his lifelong friend Park Jung-bae. Gi-hun himself is spared but captured by Hwang In-ho, known as the Front Man, who integrated himself into the games as Player 001. The new promo for Squid Game Season 3 shows the aftermath of Gi-hun’s failed uprising, with him handcuffed to one of the bunk beds on the main floor for players, blood visible on his shoulders. A shadowy figure looms over him as Gi-hun looks at them with a defeated look.

[RELATED – Squid Game Season 2 Ending Explained (& What Comes Next)]

Squid Game Season 3 Promo Hints at Gi-hun’s Front Man Reckoning

The shadowy figure is hinted to be the Front Man, but considering the way the image is shot, the figure could also just be one of the guards. Front Man has been impersonating an average player in the games, copying the same trick Oh Il-nam pulled in the first season. He formed a false bond with Gi-hun and his group, aiding them in the games while also taunting them behind their backs. If it is the Front Man in the promo image, he could be confronting Gi-hun to gloat about his failed uprising that led to the deaths of his biggest allies. Gi-hun never discovered Player 001 was the Front Man in Season 2, despite his suspicions, so the promo image could be the Front Man revealing the truth to him.

Squid Game Season 2 only covered three of the six games players are supposed to participate in. Viewers already assume the last three games will make up the majority of the third season, which will be the final one for the show. Watchers also speculated that given Gi-hun’s survival, the character will still play the remaining games. With Gi-hun back in the main player room against his will, the key image heavily suggests he will play the remaining games against his will. Gi-hun has thus far survived nine games in the series, does he have any chance of surviving the remaining three?

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While Squid Game’s Season 3 may be coming out sooner than expected, the show certainly leaves behind a void. With its high-stakes games and clever social commentary, Squid Game had fans hooked from the very start. After its second season’s shocking end, fans have simply been itching for more. However, while the Netflix series is a wonderful execution of the death game trope, it is not the only one to do so. The trope has existed in manga for a long time, each of which takes its own twists on the genre.

From being forced to compete in mecha-powered death games for the survival of their world to having to learn how to lie to avoid a life-changing debt, these manga explore human nature and morality. Just how far will one go to ensure their own survival or win a life-changing amount of money? Those are the questions these manga try to answer using increasingly graphic scenarios where the high stakes couldn’t be higher. All the while taking readers on a wild ride that will keep them entertained and give them much to think about. 

Alice in Borderland

Boasting a TV adaptation of the same name, Alice in Borderland features depressed high school student Arisu Ryouhei, who is about to graduate but unsure of his future. His life turns upside down when he and his friends Karube and Chota see fireworks and lose consciousness. When they wake up, they are in a post-apocalyptic world called Borderlands.

Here, Arisu and his friends are forced to play deadly games with their very lives on the line. Anyone who loses a game or refuses to play is brutally killed. As the three friends try to survive and figure out the truth behind this new, dangerous reality, Squid Game fans will soon find themselves on the edge of their seats.  

Tomodachi Game

High school student Yuuichi Katagiri has always valued friendship above everything else. But that changes when he and his friends are brought to a strange room and told one of the friends is responsible. The group is then forced to play a series of games to settle a large debt.

The only way to win the Tomodachi Game is to not doubt your friends. But as tensions run high, Yuuichi’s trust in his friends is tested. As secrets are uncovered and betrayals suffered, this psychological thriller manga becomes more and more like the renowned Squid Game, especially in light of Season 2’s ending.

Liar Game

College student Nao Kanzaki is the most honest person you’ll ever meet. One day, she receives a package with 100 million yen and an invite to the “Liar Game Tournament.” The rules are simple: Nao must steal other players’ money who will attempt to do the same to her, and after 30 days, each player must return the 100 million yen they originally received.

If they fail to do so, they will end up in debt, but they can keep anything extra stolen from other players as personal profit. Initially, Nao decides not to participate, simply safekeeping the money until she needs to return it. But when the 100 million yen is stolen from her, Nao is left with no choice but to learn how to lie. 

Darwin’s Game

When 17-year-old Kaname Suduo gets invited to play an online video game, he easily accepts. But unbeknownst to him, Darwin’s Game is actually a game of life and death. Forced to compete, Kaname uses his unique abilities to survive and try to find the Game Master, whom he must kill to escape.

While Darwin’s Game lacks the social commentary and psychological depth that’s made Squid Game a fan favorite, it more than makes up for it with its beautiful art and strategic fights. With 10 million copies circulating as of 2024, fans clearly resonate with Darwin’s Game’s delivery. It’s a fan-pleasing change of pace, making this action shonen a refreshing take on the death game trope.

[RELATED – 10 Genius Anime Characters & Their Smartest Moments]

As The Gods Will

Shun Takahata is a below-average student whose life takes a dark turn when he witnesses his teacher’s head explode. Shun and his classmates are then forced to survive deadly games. The first of which, much like Squid Game, is a deadly game of red-light-green-light.

A doll watches the students as they are forced to play for their lives. Anyone who moves while the doll is looking dies. As all of his classmates die one by one, Shun ends up the sole survivor, winning the game by pressing the button on the doll’s back. Unfortunately, this doesn’t put an end to the series of games. However, unlike Squid Game, Shun has no reward to look forward to.

Battle Royale

Adapted from Koushun Takami’s novel of the same name, the Battle Royale manga is a death game classic. The story starts with protagonist Shuuya and his class believing they are on their way to their graduation ceremony. Instead, the class is taken to an isolated island and forced to wear explosive collars around their necks.

Then, Shuuya and his classmates are told they must kill everyone else to win and leave the island alive. If anyone refuses to participate, their explosive collar denotes. Much like Squid Game, what follows is a high-stakes story of the lengths humans will go to survive. 

Gantz

Gantz is unique in the death game genre in that its participants are already dead. High school students Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato lose their lives trying to save a homeless drunk. But in a surprising twist, they are brought back to life and given a series of missions. 

These missions usually involve killing alien invaders inhabiting Earth. The participants receive points for completing them. And once a participant has enough points, they can get a second chance at the life they once had. 

Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven follows the world’s largest luxury ship of the same name as it encounters a wrecked ship in the middle of the ocean. On the captain’s command, the crew searches the wrecked ship and finds two survivors. One of whom is heavily injured while the other is in perfect health.

This is the audience’s first hint that something might be wrong, and as the crew brings the two survivors on board, a nightmare begins for staff and passengers alike. As people are murdered one by one, the ship’s captain must figure out the motives of the one responsible and put an end to his madness. The manga’s premise is almost similar to the game Among Us, but what makes it appealing to the Squid Game fans is the air of mystery and betrayal surrounding the ship.

Life Is Money

Fukurokouji Meguru needs 100 million yen for his sister’s heart transplant, and no matter how hard he works, he can’t raise the money. When all hope seems lost, Meguru is invited to compete in The Nightmare Game. The rules are simple. Meguru and nine others must live in a complex for 10 days for 50 million yen each. 

However, if a participant does not survive, their prize money is divided among the remaining contestants, motivating the participants to kill each other. Interestingly, physical violence is prohibited. But if any participant experiences strong emotions making their heart rate rise above a certain threshold, they are killed. Much like Squid Game, Life is Money’s cast uses psychological warfare to eliminate other contestants, all for a life-changing sum of money.

Bokurano

Bokurano takes a different approach to the death game trope, seemingly starting out as a typical mecha manga. A group of middle schoolers come across a cave where they make a contract with mysterious Kokopelli to play a series of games. What they don’t know is that they are actually agreeing to pilot the giant mecha Zearth against other similar mechas to save Earth from destruction.

When the first Zearth pilot dies, a darker reality surfaces. The children learn that they must use their life energy to pilot Zearth, sacrificing their lives in the process. This living nightmare only becomes worse when the kids realize the ones they are fighting are also kids from different Earths, fighting to preserve their own realities in a massive death game.

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Squid Game’s second season ended on quite the cliffhanger, placing the contestants of the death game into a scenario that makes the situation seem far darker than even the first season. While protagonist Seong Gi-hun returned to the brutal contest in an effort to both save those involved and bring the game down from the inside, season two also introduced some big new characters to the proceeding. “Thanos The Rapper” and “Cho Hyun-ju” were some of the biggest new contestants but a soldier on the other side of the aisle got her own time to shine. In the final season’s latest preview, a plot twist might be hiding in plain sight.

Warning. If you have yet to see the latest season of Squid Game, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into spoiler territory. Soldier 011, aka Kang No-eul, was introduced in such a way in season two that viewers were led to believe that she was being set to up to become a contestant. However, at the end of season two’s second episode, Kang is recruited to be a soldier for the Squid Game, showing no fear in gunning down contestants who failed their challenges. Since many of the soldiers are more than willing to sell the organs of the deceased for a quick buck, No-eul finds herself in a troubling situation.

[RELATED: Squid Game Shares First Look At Season 3 With Its Release Date]

Kang is Loose

From the new preview image released, which you can check out above, you can see that Soldier 011 isn’t just not wearing her mask but is doing so outside of her room. In the first two seasons, none of the soldiers would take off their masks during the games themselves, as this was a key rule for those involved. With the new promo seeing Kang No-eul standing in an environment that is clearly not her room, this might lead to 011 rebelling against the system.

One of the biggest elements of No-eul’s character was the fact that she showed remorse and care for an ill girl whose father joined the games to help out his daughter. With the doomed dad seemingly dying in the season two finale, this might be the impetus for Kang to finally rebel against her current employers. This also works in terms of her fellow soldiers that were more than willing to kill her should 011 impede their plans of harvesting organs.

Squid Game Season 3: All The Details

Squid Game’s third and final season will arrive on June 27th this summer. Luckily, along with some new promotional images, Netflix also released a new description of the story that will end the blockbuster, “Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game. Gi-hun persists with his goal to put an end to the game, while the Front Man continues onto his next move and the surviving players’ choices will lead to graver consequences with each round.”

Want to see what surprises lie in store for those who survived the first two seasons of Squid Game? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

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With Squid Game’s second season ending on quite the cliffhanger, Netflix has dropped some good news for fans wondering what is next for the life-or-death game. Set to land this summer, not only has the streaming service dropped a description of what we can expect from the third and final season but has also dropped some big reveals via this first preview. Following just how devastating season two’s events were, it seems that the platform is preparing fans for a diabolical finale not just with this new look but by also confirming when season three will land on the small screen.

Warning. If you have not yet watched Squid Game Season 2, be forewarned that this preview has spoilers for the season finale. Squid Game season three will arrive on Netflix on June 27th this summer, following an epic run for season two. A new description of season three gives death game fans a better understanding of what is to come and Gi-hun’s current mental state, “Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game. Gi-hun persists with his goal to put an end to the game, while the Front Man continues onto his next move and the surviving players’ choices will lead to graver consequences with each round.”

[RELATED: Squid Game Actor Talks Hesitation in Playing Trans Woman (And What Changed Their Mind)]

Squid Game Season 3: The Final Game

While the next season will be the main series grand finale, this doesn’t mean that Squid Game writer/director Hwang Dong-hyuk is finished with this universe. In a new interview with THR, Dong-hyuk confirms that there might be spin-offs in the franchise’s future, “When we were doing season one, I was saying there was never going to be another season. And so if the time comes, and it just so happens that I’m able to come up with a character or a different story, then maybe there might be a comeback. But I’m thinking more along the lines of a spinoff.” Alongside this commentary, Netflix also released several new images from the upcoming season that you can check out below.

How Did Season 2 End?

As mentioned earlier, main character Seong Gi-hun has seen better days. Squid Game’s second season finale saw Seong attempting to lead a rebellion of the contestants aiming to eliminate those who run the game. Unfortunately, since “The Front Man” has been hiding amongst the contestants the entire time, Gi-hun’s plan was destined to fail. Viewers witnessed many characters meeting their ultimate fate in some of the terrifying contests that make up the Netflix series in season two but there are still plenty of challengers still vying for the prize money, even following the failed rebellion.

Want to see what other surprises that the Squid Game has in store? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Seong Gi-hun and friends and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

Via THR

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Squid Game’s second season once again saw Seong Gi-hun dragged into the life-or-death games, with new challenges sent his way. Obviously, since the protagonist was the only survivor of the initial games, many of the figures from the first season didn’t make a comeback for season two. When it came to the new contestants searching to buy a new life for themselves, one of the most controversial is Cho Hyun-ju. A trans-woman in the series, the character was played by a cisgender man, actor Park Sung-hoon, who recently discussed both the controversy and why they decided to stay in the role.

In speaking with entertainment outlet Variety, Sung-hoon discussed scoring the role and his concerns in joining the cast as Hyun-ju, “I was quite amazed at the opportunity — I felt like as an actor it was going to be quite the challenge. I did have concerns about portraying a trans woman because I am a cisgender man, so I really wanted to approach it as cautiously and thoughtfully as possible.” In preparing for the role, Park made mention of the fact that he consulted transgender people to learn from them and better forge his take on the role of one of Squid Game’s biggest new characters.

[RELATED: Squid Game Fans Surprised by the Best “Well-Rounded” New Character in Season 2]

Squid Game’s Most Controversial Character

Park shared his hopes regarding how he hopes that his Squid Game character will get rid of biases for many of the viewers that turned into the popular Netflix series, “I really hope that Hyun-ju will play a part in maybe getting rid of some of those biases. I hope that people who belong in those communities will no longer feel discriminated against or experience disadvantages within society. I hope that everyone can be true to who they really are and feel confident in doing so.”

Sung-hoon also discussed the changes that he made to the character when season two was filming, “I was the one that came up with her having short bangs and in the scene where she explains to the others how to use the MP5 submachine gun, I suggested the idea of adding the last ‘Understood’ line, because I felt like when she asks that, it really makes her strong and fierce. It shows you that she’s an ex-Special Forces soldier.”

The actor also mentioned the fan response that he has received so far, “Honestly, so much that I can’t read every single one of them. They thanked me for portraying Hyun-ju, for being loyal to her and doing her justice. And I loved comments saying that they had never seen a trans character like this before and how it was empowering for them. So reading these comments, part of me feels relief and a lot of pride.”

The Future of Cho Hyun-ju in Squid Game

Following the uprising of the contestants against the runners of the Squid Game, Hyun-ju was able to survive the event and is already confirmed to have a big role in season three. Set to arrive this summer, a specific release date has yet to be officially revealed for this final season but it’s sure to end with a bang. It will ultimately be interesting to see if Netflix continues the franchise following season three considering just how popular the Squid Game is.

Want to stay in the loop when it comes to Netflix’s top death game? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on the Squid Game and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

Via Variety

The post Squid Game Actor Talks Hesitation in Playing Trans Woman (And What Changed Their Mind) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game fans are currently waiting for the third and final season of the series to release with Netflix later this year, but did you know the streaming service actually secretly released a special spinoff alongside Season 2’s premiere. Squid Game was one of the biggest returns for Netflix in recent memory as following the record breaking success of the first season, Squid Game Season 2 went on to enjoy its own milestone success as one of the biggest seasons released with Netflix of all time. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for more as we wait to see how it ends.

Squid Game will be coming to an end with its third and final season later this year, but it’s such a hit for Netflix that it does stand to reason that there might be other projects inspired by the series to expand the franchise. This led to a real life reality game show with Squid Game: The Challenge released in between the first two seasons, and apparently a Squid Game inspired fireplace titled Squid Game: Fireplace that was also secretly dropped on the streaming service alongside Season 2. You can find it with Netflix here.

What Is Squid Game: Fireplace?

Squid Game: Fireplace was secretly launched alongside the release of Squid Game Season 2 last December, and it might have flown under your radar. Not only did Netflix hide it amongst all of its other Fireplace offerings for the season, but it might have gotten lost in the full hype for Squid Game‘s new episodes overall. Either way, this is an hour long stream of a fireplace that’s decorated much like The Front Man’s office. There aren’t really any Easter Eggs or other special features to really make it stick out, however, so it’s all just for the vibes.

As for Squid Game Season 2 itself, the season was just as successful and in many ways even more of a hit than the first season. It’s only big issue is that it ends with a heck of a cliffhanger, however, as Seung Gi-Hun now finds himself in an even more precarious position heading into the final season. He’s lost quite a lot over the course of his second run through the Squid Game process, so fans are curious to see how it’s all going to work out in the end.

RELATED: Squid Game Fans Surprised by the Best “Well-Rounded” New Character in Season 2

Will There Be Any Squid Game Spinoffs?

Squid Game might be coming to an end with the release of Season 3 later this year, but it’s likely far from the end of the Netflix franchise itself. Not only is there a second season of Squid Game: The Challenge now in the works, but there’s also an English language version of the series in production too. Multiple award-winner David Fincher is now working on an English version of the franchise with Netflix, but a release has yet to be announced as of the time of this production.

So while the main series might be coming to an end with Gi-Hun’s story, there are likely going to be all sorts of other stories that could be told in this format in the future. Concrete spinoffs have yet to be announced, but there’s a good chance we’ll see some real forward momentum on all of this following the end of the series. As it’s one of Netflix’s biggest franchises, there are likely going to be all sorts of future entries to keep it all going. Maybe even some that will have a stealth launch like this.

The post Netflix Stealth Launches Secret Squid Game Spinoff appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Even though it seemed like nothing could possibly top the first season, Squid Game 2 has returned with an even more vibrant cast of characters this time around, many of whom have already stolen and broken fans’ hearts. That said, one particular new Squid Game 2 character has been the center of discussion among fans as of late, particularly on the Squid Game subreddit, with many coming together to appreciate this unexpectedly well-rounded character.

Cho Hyun-ju, better known as Player 120, has been receiving some much-deserved appreciation from fans of Squid Game lately, with one of the top posts on the show’s Reddit page this week started by u/apolochik reading, “As a trans man, this is the best trans representation I’ve ever seen.” As the title of the post surmises, many have come to appreciate the nuanced trans representation that Hyun-ju brings to Squid Game, finally giving fans a realistic portrayal while also making Hyun-ju a beautifully well-rounded character beyond just her trans identity.

[Related: Squid Game: Thanos Star Breaks Silence Over Casting Controversy in Season 2]

Squid Game 2 Gives Fans the Trans Representation They Didn’t Know They Needed

Though a trans character may not be out of the ordinary in Hollywood, for a K-drama as sensational as Squid Game, this was quite a bold move, especially given how conservative Korean society is. Though transgender individuals were recently granted the legal right to be recognized by their chosen gender identity, there is still quite a social stigma and lack of acceptance. As such, transgender representation in Korean entertainment and media is all but non-existent, with the most notable instance other than Squid Game being Itaewon Class back in 2020.

Still, Squid Game did quite an excellent job with Hyun-ju’s character, handling her character with extreme care. What most fans seem to appreciate most about Hyun-ju is that she is, at the end of the day, an extremely likable character with a complex personality, backstory, and motivations. Her character isn’t defined solely by the fact that she is trans, but the show still gives her moments of gender dysphoria just the right amount of attention.

This very sentiment is reflected in one of the top comments on the Reddit post above from u/twistoff_, which reads: “Literally a well-rounded, complex, likable, strong, smart, and interesting character who just happened to be trans. Her gender was brought up insofar as it affects her life, but she also had plenty of other character traits and identifiers to play on. The best representation I think I’ve ever seen.”

“Honestly, Hollywood should be taking serious notes. A lot of people don’t mind LGBTQ+ representation. Just don’t make it their entire personality,” reads another top comment from u/mara-star that especially hits the nail on the head.

Another fact to appreciate about Squid Game‘s portrayal of Hyun-ju is her subtle acceptance by the other players, particularly Player 095. Also known as Young-mi, Player 095 automatically refers to Hyun-ju as “unnie,” a term of endearment used for an older sister or older female friend, quietly accepting Hyun-ju for who she is with a single word. Even those who do not quite understand Hyun-ju at first, such as the old lady (Player 149,) eventually come around as Hyun-ju patiently answers any questions, with the entire situation coming off as mature and realistic by Season 2’s finale. u/mara-star’s full comment expands further, saying:

“She was my favorite character simply because she was being treated like a NORMAL person while also not ignoring the fact that, yes, people do judge and people can be ignorant but also the idea of being trans can still be a new or even weird concept that people are still wrapping their heads around but that doesn’t automatically mean they wish ill will on you as a person.”

Overall, it is also worth commending Park Sung-hoon (Queen of Tears) for his wonderful performance as Hyun-ju. The role was surely unlike any other Sung-hoon has played before and undoubtedly must have come with many challenges and expectations, but it’s safe to say that Sung-hoon nailed it at the end of the day. Player 120 has become everyone’s favorite K-drama unnie, and for now, fans can only hope that she survives into Squid Game 3 by some twist of fate.

Both seasons of Squid Game are available to stream on Netflix.

H/T: Reddit

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Squid Game 2 has taken fans by storm yet again, projecting its newest cast members into stardom and one such character that has caught many a fan’s eye is Guard 11 or Kang No-eul, played by the talented Park Gyu-young. While Gyu-young’s character has yet to truly take center stage in Squid Game, the upcoming season will likely see her character arc reach some kind of resolution.

That said, with Squid Game 3 still some time away, fans of Guard 11 and Park Gyu-young may want to check out Celebrity in the meantime. As its name implies, this thrilling K-drama explores the ugly underside of celebrity and influencer culture with Park Gyu-young at the center of it all as the series’ protagonist Seo A-ri.

[Related: Squid Game Fans Will Love These 7 Death Game Manhwa for Their Next Binge]

Squid Game‘s Kang No-Eul Takes the Lead Role in Celebrity

Released on Netflix back in June 2023, Celebrity may offer the same thrill that fans of Squid Game are looking for while waiting for the next installment with familiar faces like Park Gyu-young being an added plus. Though its premise may not seem all too appealing at first with its focus on glitz, glamour, high fashion, and luxury jewelry, this opulence is very much comparable to the allure that the prize money holds in Squid Game, drawing Celebrity‘s Seo A-ri into this alluring game of social media and fame.

The series essentially follows Seo A-ri, a door-to-door makeup saleswoman who is initially uninterested in celebrities, influencers, and even social media. However, this changes as she gets exposed to the alluring wealth these influencers and celebrities possess, awakening her curiosity. A chance meeting with one of these top influences ends up plunging A-ri right into the heart of this secret other world, eventually leading to A-ri setting up a social media account of her own out of sheer curiosity.

That said, unlike their perfectly curated feeds, each of these celebrities and influencers hides ugly secrets and lies of their own, with A-ri gradually being exposed to this vapidity during her own gradual rise to fame. While this alone might not sound as thrilling to general fans of Squid Game with its high-stakes games, Celebrity proves there is much more to the series with its very first episode. The series draws fans in with a rather unexpected twist in the form of a live stream from A-ri narrating her rise to fame and exposing those around her in the present day when she is presumably dead.

While Park Gu-young has previously starred in many rom-coms like Dali & Cocky Prince and most recently the K-drama adaptation of A Good Day to Be A Dog, Celebrity showcases her excellent range as an actor even more so than Squid Game. Nonetheless, for the longest time, many knew Park Gyu-young by her countless other cameo roles over the years and it is quite nice to see her finally get the appreciation she deserves after her spectacular performance in Squid Game.

Celebrity is available to stream on Netflix.

The post Fans of Squid Game’s Park Gyu-young Need to Check Out This K-Drama appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game Season 2 caused a lot of controversy behind the scenes as Thanos actor Choi Seung-hyun had reportedly been blackballed by the Korean entertainment world before joining the Netflix series, and the actor has broken his silence over taken on the role under such cirumstances. Squid Game Season 2 has since become one of the most successful seasons of TV in Netflix’s history after it launched last December, and a lot of that is due to the new characters starring in the new wave of games. The most outlandish of them was undoubtedly the one foe inspired by a famous Marvel villain, the rapper Thanos.

Choi Seung-hyun, who was most famously known as the rapper T.O.P within BIGBANG, joined Squid Game Season 2 as Thanos, and was a controversial choice among fans given the star has not worked since being arrested for marijuana use (which is illegal in South Korea) in 2017. In speaking with The Korea Times, the star has since broken his silence about the role and noted how it seemed to be destiny, “The offer to play Thanos was a daunting proposition. The character mirrored my past, reflecting aspects I’d rather keep hidden. The fear of being pigeonholed into one role made me hesitate. But destiny seemed to be pulling me in this direction.”

Thanos Star Talks Being Cast as a Drug User in Squid Game

But while the role of Thanos was a tough proposition because it brought up his own past, Choi was ready to take on the role because of series creator’s Hwang Dong-hyuk’s trust, “For almost 10 years, I felt no one looked at me, but director Hwang Dong-hyuk reached out to me first. The trust (and) the belief he had in me gave me the courage to take this on. As an actor, it is my duty to repay the trust. Excelling in my performance is another assignment in my life.”

Choi even steered into that aspect of the character, and did research on how Thanos would react differently to things depending on when he used or didn’t use a drug, “The drug that Thanos uses in the series is extremely potent, so I researched the effects of such substances while developing the character…I tried to act differently in scenes where Thanos had not yet used the drug versus those where he had.” This even went into his rap style, “There’s a type of rap style in southern U.S. hip-hop called ‘mumble rap,’ often associated with rappers who use powerful stimulants. I tried to channel that in the way Thanos delivers his lines.”

RELATED: This Squid Game Salesman Art Proves a Manhwa Adaptation Is What the Fans Want

What’s Next for T.O.P.?

Choi announced his retirement from the Korean entertainment industry in 2020, so many were wondering if his starring in Squid Game Season 2 was the start of a greater comeback. But from the way the star puts it, he’s just been making music and doing the best to heal himself from his past, “For the past seven years, I have lived almost isolated from society, spending most of my time at home and in my music studio. So I just kept working on music in the dark and the reason I did that was not for any other reason, but because music was the only place where I could breathe, when I was composing music and standing in front of the microphone. I think I made music to survive,” Choi stated.

“So I wrote a countless number of songs, just by listening to my own dark heart and inner turmoil,” Choi continued. I wanted to heal myself through music and I want to share that music with my fans in some way.” But for his future overall, the star just wants, “My primary goal is to establish a stable and less dramatic life…I want to reach a point where I can wake up without being bombarded by negative news and feel more at peace.”

You can now stream the first two seasons of Squid Game with Netflix, and the third and final season will end the series some time later this year.

via The Korea Times [H/T – ScreenRant]

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Squid Game Season 2 has been taking over Netflix ever since it launched last December, and now the season has officially become one of the most watched seasons on Netflix ever. Squid Game was one of the biggest successes for Netflix in the 2020s as the Korean drama really took the world by storm. It was a surprise seeing a non-English series succeed to such an extent that it became a fully fleshed out franchise for Netflix that resulted in a brand new, completely real game show and two more seasons to help bring it all to an end. And Netflix viewers have been locked in.

Squid Game Season 2 went on to have one of the biggest premieres in Netflix history as it broke records previously held by its own first season and Wednesday. Now as the numbers continue to roll in through to the new year, Squid Game Season 2 has cemented itself as the third most-watched TV season on Netflix with 152.5 million total views worldwide. This series is still just as big as it was the first time around.

Squid Game Season 2 Continues to Dominate Netflix

As revealed on Netflix’s Top 10 lists for the week of January 6th, Squid Game Season 2 is now in its third week at the top of the Non-English TV shows chart globally with 26.3 million views. It seems the success of the new season has brought back the first season too as Squid Game Season 1 has entered the Top 10 list at third place with 8.7 million views as well. With these latest numbers, Squid Game Season 2 has gone from its 68 million view debut to its current total of 152.5 million views worldwide, and as Variety points out, this means the season has picked up 126.2 million views across 11 days.

This is a huge feat for any Netflix series as no other show has seen that kind of growth, and Squid Game Season 2 is in pretty hilarious company when it comes to the most watched seasons on Netflix overall. The current title holder is Squid Game Season 1 with 265 million views, and Wednesday comes in second with 252 million views. There’s an over 100 million view difference in between these and Squid Game Season 2’s current view count, but it’s a huge accomplishment for a follow up to a massively popular series.

RELATED: Squid Game Creator Explains Why Season 2’s Most Controversial Player Shares Name With Marvel Villain

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 is currently scheduled for a release some time later this year, but a more concrete release date or window has yet to be announced by Netflix as of the time of this publication. Squid Game Season 3 will be officially bringing the series to an end, and when previously asked about a potential release for the final episodes, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk teased,  “At this point, anything I might say is going to be a spoiler, so I want to be cautious. But what I can say is, after Season 2 launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon. I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year.”

A potential leak for Squid Game Season 3 teases that the final episodes will be available for streaming this June, and that would perfectly line up with what the creator had noted about its release. But as of this time, Netflix fans can only hope to catch up with the first two seasons of the series in the meantime while we all wait to see how it all comes to an end.

HT – Variety

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Squid Game Season 2 might have broken records previously held by Season 1 of the series with Netflix, but one star has addressed the divisive reaction fans have had to the new episodes. Squid Game Season 2 premiered last December and quickly broke records as one of the highest streaming premieres in Netflix’s history, and the new wave of episodes introduced fans to a new set of games and wild characters staking their lives on them. As the series ran through its run of seven episodes before it came to its cliffhanger ending, fans have not had as overwhelmingly positive response as they did for the first season.

It’s likely due to its cliffhanger ending that fans had a more negative response to Squid Game Season 2, and the fact it had less games than the first season as it aims to tell a completely different kind of story. But as star Lee Byung-hun, who plays the Front Man in the series, noted in a recent interview with Star News Korea, “I personally found it fun.” Explaining that no series can be truly free of criticism, it seems the star is confident in the new episodes and the creator behind them all.

Squid Game Star Addresses Season 2 Backlash

“I respect those opinions,” Byung-hun stated. “In fact, no work can be free of criticism. I personally found it fun. I thought that director Hwang Dong-hyuk is a very smart person.” It’s a very stoic reaction that seems to be aware of how fans might have approached the new season much differently than the first time around. It makes a lot of sense as the first season of the series is a real lightning in a bottle kind of success that even Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk was aware of as he didn’t immediately have plans to follow up the series when that first season initially released.

It’s also why Squid Game will be ending its story with a final season of episodes coming later this year. As Dong-hyuk explained about when creating the story for the new season, it was initially one much longer story arc, “When I first wrote the story of Seasons 2 and 3 it was one long story arc. And I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.” 

RELATED: Squid Game Creator Explains Why Season 2’s Most Controversial Player Shares Name With Marvel Villain

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 is currently slated for a release some time later this year, but has yet to confirm a release date as of the time of this publication. Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk teased that the final episodes would be coming to Netflix sooner than fans might have expected, and teased a potential Summer release for the final season. But as of the time of this writing, Netflix themselves have yet to comment on the matter.

While Squid Game Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger that absolutely rocked Seung Gi-Hun heading into the finale, the first look at Season 3 teased that the series would be returning to its games in the final season. It’s yet to be revealed what to expect from these games, or who could be making it to the end, but fans are going to be locked in for when the final episodes of the series make their debut.

via Star News Korea [HT – ScreenRant]

The post Squid Game Star Addresses Season 2’s Divisive Reaction: “I Personally Found It Fun” appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When Squid Game premiered in 2021, nobody could predict that the show would become a worldwide hit and Netflix’s most popular TV show of all time. After racking up over two billion hours viewed, the twisted and ruthless thriller has cemented itself as one of the most influential and addictive TV shows in recent memory. With that kind of success, it was pretty obvious that Netflix was going to do whatever it took to ensure that Squid Game wasn’t just a one-and-done series. There was just one problem: although Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had ideas for additional seasons of his show, he had nothing concrete in place.

Unfortunately for fans, they had to wait an excruciating three years before they were able to get their death-game fix again. Lucky for us, the wait time for Season 3 of Squid Game won’t be nearly as long, with an estimated release date of Summer 2025. That premiere date is still more than six months away – so what are we supposed to watch to pass the time until Season 3 of Squid Game? While there isn’t another show exactly like Squid Game, there are plenty of thrilling TV shows that just might scratch the itch.

Squid Game: The Challenge

While none of the contestants in this reality show will meet an untimely and gruesome death if they fail any of the challenges, Squid Game: The Challenge has enough of the charm and sheer desperation of Squid Game to make it work. Like its fictional counterpart, this show throws 456 contestants into a closed arena and puts them to the test. The reality series even duplicates many of the games seen in Squid Game, just without the blood and guts strewn about.

RELATED: English Squid Game Remake Happening and an Amazing Director Is in Talks

Created in 2023 by executive producer Stephen Lambert, Squid Game: The Challenge doesn’t have a secret society of the wealthy elite pulling the strings behind the scenes, but there is a hefty payday involved for the winner. With a jackpot of $4.56 million, you can bet that each one of the 456 contestants participated in the show as if their lives really were on the line.

Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Dong-hyuk cited Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor as one of the main inspirations behind Squid Game, and it’s pretty easy to see why. The anime series tells the story of a gambler who is in massive debt. Desperate to find a way to erase his money troubles, he signs up for a mysterious challenge filled with games that require both skill and luck. But there’s a catch: if you fail any of the games, you die. Sounds pretty familiar, right?

While the premise of Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor might make Squid Game seem like a ripoff, each show is done in its own unique way that makes them both worthy of their praise. Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor is as much about finding a way to get into the mind of your opponent as it is about playing the game.

Alice in Borderland

Based on the manga created by Haro Aso, Alice in Borderland follows a group of video game fanatics who are somehow transported into a sparsely populated alternate reality. The group is forced to walk the streets of a desolate Tokyo City where they come across a series of instructions to death games that they must compete in. Similar to Squid Game, the show is rich in mystery and an overarching sense of dread.

The series often plays out more like a video game than a television show, equipped with the occasional betrayal and even puzzles that the characters must solve in order to continue on their journey. Like many of the other entries in this list, it might be smart to not get too attached to any one character, because heartbreak and tragedy will show their ugly head when you least expect it.

Hellbound

Hellbound isn’t like any of the other shows on this list, and that’s certainly meant as a compliment. In an alternate universe, angels visit Earth and offer a warning to people who have been deemed as sinners. But unlike more wholesome programs, these sinners are not offered a chance at redemption: instead, they are told that their time on Earth will be coming to an end and that they will be killed. But they won’t be killed in any old way. No, they will be met by a small group of mysterious and powerful smoke creatures who will pummel them senseless before sending them to hell.

RELATED: Squid Game: I Need These 7 Crazy Kids Games to Be in the Remake

Hellbound was created by Yeon Sang-ho, who rose to fame after the success of his film Train to Busan. With two seasons comprised of six episodes each, Hellbound is the perfect show to binge during a single weekend with enough mystery and intrigue to keep you invested.

All of Us Are Dead

What do you get when you take a highly infectious zombie virus and throw it inside a jam-packed high school? You get an entertaining thriller that is loaded with about as much spicy drama as you could ask for. Oh, and zombies – it has plenty of flesh-eating zombies that are almost as dangerous as a teenage love triangle.

All of Us Are Dead has some extremely high stakes that make it a worthy watch. Just like Squid Game, this show offers a critique of the power struggles and political games that occur in just about every facet of everyday life. With the added thrill of a zombie-related death lurking behind every corner, All of Us Are Dead offers up a decent amount of entertaining drama to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Snowpiercer

If power struggles and class wars are your cup of tea, then Snowpiercer should be on your must-watch list. The show works as a reboot of the 2013 film of the same name. It follows the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth that has transformed the planet into a world covered in ice and snow. In order to keep people alive, a massive train is constructed and filled with train cars that work as a class system. The more powerful of a person you are, the closer you’re situated to the front of the train.

Similar to Squid Game, the show is wrapped in a larger mystery that hides the origins of the flawed class system. Starring Sean Bean, Jennifer Connelly, and Daveed Diggs, Snowpiercer is packed with interesting characters and juicy drama. With four seasons and 40 episodes to work through, this show just might buy you some time until Season 3 of Squid Game is released.

Silo

Similar to Snowpiercer, the Apple TV+ series Silo is also set in a post-apocalyptic world. The biggest difference is that the characters in Silo live inside a massive underground structure called the Silo. The Silo is made up of over 100 levels, each serving different purposes, from agriculture to mechanical maintenance. But not everything is as simple as it seems, with the people of the Silo forced to live under strict rules, believing the surface world is toxic and uninhabitable.

If you enjoy character-driven mysteries set in richly imagined worlds, Silo is worth checking out. It has a layered narrative that keeps viewers guessing, and the underground setting adds a sense of claustrophobia. The show also features some very strong production values as well as compelling performances, particularly from Rebecca Ferguson in the lead role.

Money Heist

Like many of the other shows on this list, Money Heist is a show that explores the themes of class struggles. Created by filmmaker Alex Pina, Money Heist tells the story of a brilliant criminal mastermind who forms a small team of desperate criminals in order to pull off a massive heist that promises to make them all extremely wealthy. As might be expected from a series that revolves around a heist, things don’t exactly go according to plan, making for some entertaining drama.

Just in case you have a desire to watch a show with similar aesthetics as Squid Game, the characters in Money Heist also sport some slick pink jumpsuits. The show is also packed with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and glued to your seat. Money Heist might not be as brutal as Squid Game, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling.

The Purge

If you are looking for a TV show that is just as brutal as Squid Game, then look no further than The Purge. Based on the popular film franchise, The Purge takes place a few years into the future. With the country governed by the authoritarian New Founding Fathers of America in 2027, a yearly Purge is instituted that allows all crimes to be legal for a single 12-hour period. This is done with the hopes of quelling the most sadistic urges of Americans and bringing peace to the country. But of course, things get a little out of control.

Once again, the theme of power and class struggles is prevalent throughout the show. The Purge follows the adventures of several key characters who find themselves in various nightmares during Purge Night. Like Squid Game, this violent thriller examines the extreme lengths that humans might go to, in order to survive.

LOST

One of the most popular shows of the new millennium, Lost was an immediate smash-hit when it premiered in 2004. The show follows the trials and tribulations of a band of people who survive a plane crash on a seemingly deserted island. However, it becomes clear to the survivors that the island is holding onto some dark secrets that just might pose an even greater threat than an exploding plane.

Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof, Lost is the quintessential mystery thriller. While some of these twists don’t always work and many of the questions about the island are left to the viewer’s imagination, Lost has earned its rightful place as one of the most influential shows ever created. With 121 episodes to work through, it’ll definitely make that wait for Season 3 of Squid Game a little more bearable.

All of these series are available on various streaming platforms.

The post 10 Shows to Watch While You Wait for Squid Game Season 3 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game Season 2 has been taking over the world ever since it debuted with Netflix last year, and the creator behind it all opened up about why the new season’s most controversial new character is named after a Marvel villain. Squid Game Season 2 has been breaking records with the streaming service since its debut in December, and it’s no secret as to why as the season introduces fans to a whole new group of characters competing in deadly games to win a massive prize. But Thanos the rapper has been standing out from the pack for a number of different reasons.

Squid Game Season 2 fans introduces a rapper who has named himself Thanos. He’s not only inspired by the famous Marvel villain as he sports purple hair, but even painted his nails to boast his own version of the Infinity Stones. Speaking to Netflix, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk explained that Thanos being named after a Marvel villain was a way to help fans around the world be drawn to the character. He was specifically designed for for worldwide appeal.

Why Squid Game’s Thanos Is Named After a Marvel Villain

As Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk points out about the character, “The reason I named the character Thanos… It doesn’t really suit a rapper as a name, was to design him to be a character fans worldwide could love. But I am so grateful he is getting this much love.” As for the response to the character, it seems this appeal has worked as Thanos has been hailed as one of the big standouts from the new season. He’s outwardly different from anything that was seen in the first season, and the offers a chaotic presence to make the second season that much more of a tumultuous experience overall.

Thanos plays a key role in the new season as a direct antagonist that creates some chaotic moments that shake up the other characters. It’s a personality type that fans had not seen in Squid Game before, and is one that leads towards a certain conclusion that we find at the end of the season. Heading into Squid Game Season 3 later this year without this chaotic presence means things are about to get a lot more serious before the Netflix series comes to an end completely.

RELATED: Squid Game Fans Will Love These Death Game Manhwa for Their Next Binge

Squid Game’s Thanos Has Been Facing a Backlash

There has been controversy for Thanos behind the scenes as well. Actor Choi Seung-hyun was arrested for marijuana use in 2017, and Squid Game’s creator opened up to People about Choi taking on such a big role after a lengthy hiatus from the entertainment industry, “As you may know, the actor Seung-hyun, about nine years ago got involved in a marijuana scandal in Korea and wasn’t able to do any projects for the past nine years in Korea,” the creator noted. “And so this is a comeback after quite a long hiatus, and particularly because he portrays a character that’s a rapper and also someone who is on drugs.”

In elaborating further, Hwang noted how it was brave for the Thanos star to take on such a role too, “I feel that it took him a lot of guts, in a way, to portray a character, especially someone who shares a lot of similarities that are quite negative to him as a person too,” Hwang stated. “So I think it took him a lot of courage to take on that role. Despite the long hiatus, I have to say, as a director, he performed very impressively and I’m very satisfied with what he did with the character.”

The post Squid Game Creator Explains Why Season 2’s Most Controversial Player Shares Name With Marvel Villain appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Days after adding new modes for Squid Game, Black Ops 6 is fixing some issues. This time around, a majority of the patch is focused on the Multiplayer and Zombies modes. However, with these, they are amending some changes done from the last update, which fans didn’t seem to be too keen of when removed. 

As mentioned before, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is in the midst of its Squid Game collaboration. The event added new multiplayer modes inspired by the hit Netflix show’s second season like the Pentathlon and the ever iconic Red Light, Green Light. Both of the products have been massive successes, though Squid Game’s controversial ending has been the talk of the town long after its Christmas Day release. 

RELATED: The Absurd Cost to Make a Call of Duty Game Revealed by Activision

While many have been having fun with the modes, some of the changes done, specifically with the Shadow Rift mod and the accessible Directed Mode, were not too favored. The removal of Big Game’s lethal damage towards Elites and the five-second delay of spawned zombies after five looped rounds, while they may not seem too big, were distracting for players and felt out of place. So, as a resolution, the Directed Mode’s changes have been reverted. Meanwhile, while the lethal damage was not fixed, four new buffs for Shadow Rift have been added to still bring the pain to Elites but not enough to one-shot them like before. 

Also in the patch notes are fixes to the FX in Citadelle des Morts when using a sword with Aether Shroud and balancing Dead Light, Green Light to make it more harder. Furthermore, Liberty Falls has been added to the map selection and promise to take the feedback gained from this time to make it harder/easier for round cap extension next week. In the future, the team has promised to schedule out the fixes for speedrunning Terminus and the Vermin double-attack bug.

Today’s patch notes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 can be found below:

Global

Characters

• Addressed an issue where Maya’s “Joyride” Operator Skin would not be visible past 70 meters.

UI

• Addressed some visual issues with the Events tab.

Audio

• Addressed an issue where audio was not playing for Event milestone banners in-game.

Multiplayer

Modes

• Red Light, Green Light
  • Increased XP awarded from match bonus.

Stability

• Added various stability fixes.

Zombies

Maps

• Citadelle des Morts
  • Addressed an issue where using the Void Sheath Augment for Aether Shroud with one of the Elemental Swords would cause the match to crash.
  • Addressed an issue where many visual effects would stop playing.
  • Directed Mode
    • Addressed an issue where guidance would be incorrect if a player disconnected with a stamp.
    • Addressed an issue where guidance would be incorrect each time a new stamp spawned.
    • Addressed an issue where picking up Solais after a stamp was spawned could prevent quest progression.

Modes 

• Directed Mode
  • Removed the extended time between rounds and the delay between spawning zombies after five looped rounds at the round cap.

Ammo Mods

• Shadow Rift
  • Activation Rates
    • Normal enemy activation rate increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Special enemy activation rate increased from 5% to 7%.
    • Elite enemy activation rate with Big Game Augment equipped increased from 5% to 7%.
  • Cooldown Timer
    • Decreased cooldown by 25%.

LTM Highlights / Adjustments

• Dead Light, Green Light
  • Added Liberty Falls to map selection.
  • Increased round cap to 20 before Exfil.

Stability

• Various stability fixes.

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Patch Notes Released for Multiplayer & Zombies appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Following the success of Squid Game‘s second season, it’s no surprise that fans would begin to post passionate fan works after the gut-wrenching finale. Of them, @Oct_sg on X (formerly Twitter) recently uploaded a piece of fan art of the Salesman (otherwise known as The Recruiter) depicting his iconic moments from the first episode of Season 2. Gong Yoo’s performance as the Salesman, in Episode 1 was absolutely phenomenal and added a whole new layer to an already beloved figure in the franchise.

@Oct_sg’s fan art has solidified one thing among fans: the Recruiter’s backstory deserves to be told, and would make for an excellent spin-off manhwa. Seeing him go from a young, jaded man into the sadist he is by the time Seong Gi-hun finally manages to track him down would makes for an insanely addictive read. Plus, getting the additional insight on the inner workings of the games, and how the Frontman actually manages to recruit people to be soldiers.

[RELATED: Squid Game Fans Will Love These Death Game Manhwa for Their Next Binge]

There are other routes that a potential Recruiter spin-off could take, too, potentially having an episodic set-up showcasing other games of ddakji between contestants featured in seasons 1 and 2. It would be especially interesting to show how some of the newer cast members in Season 2 ended up in the games, particularly Kim Jun-hee (player 222), who states in Season 2 that she won every single one of her ddakji games against the Recruiter.

Squid Game Has Loads Of Potential For Spin-Offs & Sequels – But Does It Need Them?

The second season of Squid Game has become just as much of a pop culture phenomenon as the first, and surprisingly, has managed to carry the same weight and themes over seamlessly. Many fans of the franchise were concerned that Season 2 would lose the intricate, deeply moving things the original series had to say about the class divide in South Korea. Thankfully, Season 2 of Squid Game not only lives up to the first in terms of quality, but, in many ways, has surpassed the first due to the new cast of contestants.

The question remains, however, whether having more Squid Game spin-offs would ultimately hurt the franchise’s longevity. While it would be amazing to see more content of some of the side characters before participating in the games – or working for them, in the Recruiter’s case – there’s a high likelihood that if any of these projects were to be mishandled, it would bring down the incredible world created by Hwang Dong-hyuk. With the popularity of the show only growing and with Season 3 set to release in June 2025, there’s no doubt that Squid Game will inevitably start receiving more content. As long as these new projects are handled with the same expert writing and care as the first two seasons, it would be amazing to see the franchise continue to grow.

H/T @Oct_sg on X (Formerly Twitter)

The post This Squid Game Salesman Art Proves a Manhwa Adaptation Is What the Fans Want appeared first on ComicBook.com.

After three long years, Squid Game has finally returned with a sequel that has completely overtaken Netflix’s viewership rankings. That said, with Squid Game Season 3’s release still a while away, fans of the series looking for something similar may want to check out these death game manhwa in the meantime.

While Netflix’s Squid Game surely has its own distinct appeal, these death game manhwa offer a very similar thrill with many of these stories similarly featuring either money or the life of its characters being put on the line.

Pyramid Game

Pyramid Game by Dalgonyak revolves around Seong Suji, who, upon transferring to Love High, finds herself embroiled in an ugly popularity game conducted among the so-called “happy class.” Once a month, the class gathers to vote, establishing a hierarchy within the class. Those with the least votes end up being the target of constant bullying, and Suji, against all odds, finds herself at the very bottom of this pyramid upon her arrival.

Determined to break the system, Suji thus sets out to make allies and find the true benefactors of this ugly game. Though the series may not be as violent as Squid Game, its high school setting doesn’t stop it from being a thrill to read from start to finish.

Zombie X Slasher

In a world overrun by zombies, Cheolsu, the protagonist of Zombie X Slasher, finds that one of the biggest issues is not the zombies themselves but rather the housing crisis, where even seven lifetimes’ worth of his savings won’t be enough for a house.

Motivated by his dream of being a homeowner, Cheolsu joins the National Counter-Offensive Movement, where he is offered five million won for every zombie he kills. Though not strictly a death game manhwa by definition, Zombie X Slasher by NARACK and Hong Jun Ki offers a thrilling survival story that Squid Game fans are sure to enjoy.

Death’s Game

Written by Wonshik Lee and illustrated by GGulchan, Death’s Game is centered around Yijae Choi. After being unable to find employment for years after graduating and having lost all his money to a Bitcoin scam, Yijae hits absolute rock bottom after learning that his ex-girlfriend is getting married only three months after breaking up with him.

That said, after taking his life, Yijae finds himself not in the afterlife but on a plane with death incarnated as a young woman seated beside him who punishes him with a cruel game. Death explains that Yijae will live thirteen other lives. Each individual he is reborn as is fated for imminent death, and if Yijae can avoid dying, he gets to live out that particular individual’s entire lifetime. While it may seem like he has been given 13 chances to start all over again, avoiding death proves to be harder than Yijae could have ever anticipated, setting the stage for this enthralling series, which has also been adapted into a K-drama of its own much like Squid Game.

[Related:10 Best Netflix Shows to Binge Right Now]

100

From the same creator as Jungle Juice, 100 by Hyeong Eun and Yunyeol Choi is based on the popular battle royale game PUBG. The series follows a South Korean National Intelligence Service agent named Hoyoung Cheon who commits several crimes and robberies all so he can find his way into Battlegrounds, a death game with 100 participants where the last one standing is offered anything they wish for, be it freedom, money, a clean criminal record or all of the above.

Hoyoung’s mission is to find a missing assemblyman named Naksu Kim, who has accidentally found himself in the midst of this dangerous game. To make matters worse, the other participants are all dangerous convicts, each with a thirst for victory that makes Hoyoung’s mission all the more challenging.

Zero Game

Zero Game by zelbasen revolves around Hanna Yoo, who, at the lowest point in her life, is presented with the opportunity to rebuild her life from zero. The series takes off as Hanna finds her life falling apart after the death of her parents, and just when her aunt had all but abandoned her, Hanna receives a mysterious email from her dead father inviting her to participate in a survival game known as the Zero Game.

Upon agreeing to take part, Hanna is transported into a world much like her own though filled with monsters and games that she must clear to make it to the top and get the chance to restart her life. That said, several others compete for the same prize, leaving few that she can truly trust. With gorgeous art to boot, Zero Game adds just a touch of isekai to the typical death game manhwa formula for a refreshing read overall.

Escape Room

True to its title, Escape Room by 10PARK follows Sean Baek, who, after passing out drunk one night, mysteriously wakes up in an escape room the following day. That said, everything about this escape room is beyond creepy, with potential death waiting at every wrong turn.

Luckily, Sean’s overly rational mind, which has always estranged him from his peers, seems to be perfect for the escape room’s sadistic games. With over a hundred chapters and a fully completed story, this high-stakes series is the perfect psychological thriller for fans of Squid Game‘s darker motifs.

Money Game

Written and illustrated by Bae Jin-su, Money Game has coincidentally spawned a K-drama adaptation by Netflix called The 8 Show and is sure to be an instant favorite of any fan of Squid Game. As its title implies, Money Game also involves a group of contestants roped into a survival game by the promise of money and riches, in this case, 44.8 billion won split between the eight contestants.

Having been told they are part of a reality show, the eight contestants in the game must survive for 100 days in the studio, where they are each given their own room but nothing else except for a rulebook and a set of clothes. The biggest catch is that anything else they need, including food and water, must be purchased at 1000 times its original cost, with this amount being subtracted from the total prize pool. Though not as violent as Squid Game, Money Game somehow manages to be much darker with poignant commentary on social structure, governance, democracy, and even human nature itself.

All of these manhwa are available to read on Webtoon.

The post Squid Game Fans Will Love These 7 Death Game Manhwa for Their Next Binge appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When you buy through our links, Comicbook may earn an affiliate commission. Red light. Green light! Time to run and get these all-new Squid Game Funko Pops! Of course, the figures are Inspired by the wildly popular Netflix series, Squid Game, where contestants participate in randomized games to death, in the hopes of walking away with a cash prize. The Korean show gained massive popularity when it dropped on Netflix back in 2021, and now the second season is streaming to the delight of fans. What’s more, a new wave of Funko Pops has entered the game.

The new Squid Game Funko Pops include Player 456, AKA Seong Gi-Hun, and the ruthless Front Man, one of the masked figures who continues to antagonize and harass the players throughout the series. Both figures are currently available to pre-order here on Amazon and should be available here at Entertainment Earth later today. You can keep tabs on all of this week’s new Funko Pop releases right here.

More Squid Game Season 2 News

The actor who portrays Thanos in Squid Game season 2 has had a controversial past. Choi Seung-hyun, who once performed with the pop group BIGBANG under the pseudonym T.O.P., was actually blacklisted from the Korean entertainment industry in 2017 after being arrested for marijuana use (which is illegal in South Korea). In a recent interview with People, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk opened up about the actor’s courage in taking on a character who openly uses drugs even with that mark on his career.

“As you may know, the actor Seung-hyun, about nine years ago got involved in a marijuana scandal in Korea and wasn’t able to do any projects for the past nine years in Korea,” he began. “And so this is a comeback after quite a long hiatus, and particularly because he portrays a character that’s a rapper and also someone who is on drugs.”

Continuing on, Dong-hyuk revealed how he felt about the star taking on the role, “I feel that it took him a lot of guts, in a way, to portray a character, especially someone who shares a lot of similarities that are quite negative to him as a person too,” Hwang stated. “So I think it took him a lot of courage to take on that role.” And at the end of the day, the creator was satisfied with what made it to screen, “Despite the long hiatus, I have to say, as a director, he performed very impressively and I’m very satisfied with what he did with the character.”

That said, you can expect more Funko Pops from Squid Game Season 2 in the near future, and we have no doubt that Thanos will be among them. Stay tuned to our Gear page for updates

The post Ready, Set Go For Squid Game Season 2 Funko Pops appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game’s second season had deadlier games of chance and perhaps deadlier villains that populated what might be Netflix’s biggest series of all time. While the Frontman and the “Masked Soldiers” are still pulling the strings on the life-or-death exercises, the contestants themselves aren’t all on the side of altruism. One of the most colorful and striking antagonists on the latest Squid Game season was “Thanos The Rapper,” a purple-haired opponent who was willing to win big in the contest by any means necessary. When all is said and done however, is Thanos a worthy foe or is his entire aesthetic a bit too much too swallow?

Warning. If you have yet to watch Squid Game Season 2, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into serious spoiler territory. When Thanos The Rapper initially is introduced in Squid Game Season 2, his purple hair immediately grabs your attention, alongside his raps that play into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest villain. Touting that he can “destroy half of humanity with his rhymes,” the lyric creator was a boastful, loud, drug-taking attention-grabber and luckily, these traits worked well in forming a villain who appears goofy on paper but ultimately works well in capturing a necessary element of Squid Game.

[RELATED: Marvel’s Thanos Inspired One of Squid Game Season 2’s Best New Characters]

Thanos The Rapper Represents The Youth

“Thanos” as a character helps to represent how downtrodden current generations can be and how even celebrity doesn’t necessarily mean that someone can be saved from their own decisions. The rapper’s background ties into another contestant, MG Coin, who sold a “Bitcoin” that made the Marvel-named character lose out on his savings. Of course, this means that the meeting between Thanos and Coin in season two heightens the drama both on the gaming field and in the dorms.

On top of Thanos dealing with tough times brought on by the digital marketplace, the purple-haired contestant also relies on drugs to help calm his nerves throughout the games. While you might expect that the pills would be a hindrance on his Squid Game performance, the care-free nature of the Rapper under the influence helps make him survive a handful of games. Thanos’ addiction is yet another element from the real world that is quite common in countless societies.

Thanos’ Hilarity Softens His Maliciousness

Thanos The Rapper on paper is almost impossible to believe but the way he dominates the Squid Game and poisons fellow contestants to his side works well. Ultimately, the fact that he dies at the hands of MG Coin, receiving a fork to the neck that sets off even more violence goes to show the influence that Thanos had before his death. While Thanos’ demise is one that means he most likely won’t be appearing in season three this summer, his legacy is sure to live on as the contestants face their final trial.

Want to see what the future holds for Squid Game? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for all the latest on the Netflix juggernaut and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

The post Squid Game: Is Thanos The Rapper Too Silly? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game‘s most divisive character in Season 2 among fans is Thanos, and it turns out that the actor behind him is just as divisive due to his past. Squid Game Season 2 made its debut with Netflix near the end of 2024, and it was the most watched premiere in Netflix history breaking the records previously held by Season 1. This new season reintroduced fans to Seong Gi-Hun and the deadly children’s games, but also introduces fans to a whole new cast of characters who are gambling with their lives. And the one that’s gotten the most attention is a very volatile character named after a Marvel villain, Thanos.

Thanos was a rather divisive character with Squid Game fans through the Season 2’s episodes, and the actor behind him carries just as much controversy. Choi Seung-hyun, who once performed with the pop group BIGBANG under the pseudonym T.O.P., was actually blackballed from the Korean entertainment industry in 2017 after being arrested for marijuana use (which is illegal in South Korea). Speaking to People, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk opened up about the actor’s courage in taking on a character who openly uses drugs even with that mark on his career.

Squid Game Creator Defends Thanos Actor

In 2017, Choi Seung-hyun was found guilty of using marijuana and was thus sentenced to ten months in jail and a two year suspension from his mandatory military service. The actor was thus not getting any work in the years since before appearing in Squid Game Season 2, and series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk opened up about casting the actor, “As you may know, the actor Seung-hyun, about nine years ago got involved in a marijuana scandal in Korea and wasn’t able to do any projects for the past nine years in Korea,” he began. “And so this is a comeback after quite a long hiatus, and particularly because he portrays a character that’s a rapper and also someone who is on drugs.”

Continuing further, the creator revealed how he felt about the star taking on the role, “I feel that it took him a lot of guts, in a way, to portray a character, especially someone who shares a lot of similarities that are quite negative to him as a person too,” Hwang stated. “So I think it took him a lot of courage to take on that role.” And at the end of the day, the creator was satisfied with what made it to screen, “Despite the long hiatus, I have to say, as a director, he performed very impressively and I’m very satisfied with what he did with the character.”

RELATED: Squid Game Creator Explains Why Season 2 Ends After That Shocking Cliffhanger

What’s Next for Squid Game?

The controversy behind Choi Seung-hyun’s past doesn’t entirely cross cultural borders as marijuana is legal in many states in the United States, and its use wouldn’t bar an actor here in the same way as it’s clearly done in South Korea. As for the character Thanos himself, Seung-hyun indeed brought the character to life in a perfect way as he was supposed to be as divisive as fans find him to be. He was purposefully introduced as a chaotic element in the second season, and is much different than any other character we’ve seen.

The actor’s past controversy shouldn’t inform how fans feel about the character itself, and vice-versa. As Squid Game’s creator explains, it was a brave move for the star to openly portray a character who actively uses drugs in the series. It’s a big move and it paid off well in the final result. But we’ll see what happens next when Squid Game returns for Season 3 later this year.

HT – People

The post Squid Game Creator Praises Thanos Actor Despite Fan Backlash appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game saved the best for last when fans spotted a cameraman during one of its pivotal scenes in the Season 2 finale. The popular game show/thriller series from Netflix returned for Squid Game 2 in December, and even though all episodes were released at once, the magic of streaming means fans can take their time watching the episodes instead of binging. This is the most likely reason why it’s taken so long for fans to notice that a cameraman just happened to be standing in the background as the Squid Game cast fired their guns at the red-clad soldiers.

“Someone is getting fired from the Squid Games team after one of the cameramen was spotted in the background mid episode,” a user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The user also shared a nine-second clip from Episode 7 of the Squid Game 2 finale, timestamped around the 22-minute mark. As the cast exchanges gunfire with the soldiers a cameraman dressed in all black can be seen holding a camera to take footage. It happens so quickly that it is easy to miss if you’re just casually watching the show, but once it’s paused the person is very quickly picked up by the eye.

[RELATED: Squid Game’s Season 2 Traitor Elevates The Series]

Other users on X were quick to join in and make jokes about the Squid Game blunder, with one person claiming that the second season of Squid Game was rushed out so it could be released before 2025. Therefore, the editing team was feeling the crunch so overlooked and missed the cameraman. Other users complained about having the season spoiled for them since they haven’t watched yet.

Squid Game joins other shows where things accidentally made it into episodes

Squid Game isn’t the first show where fans spotted something in an episode that wasn’t supposed to be there. One of the most recent, and most talked about, occurrences happened in the final season of Game of Thrones. The fourth episode famously had Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys sitting in a Winterfell dining room with a coffee cup beside her.

Then there was the VFX error in the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon with King Viserys’ lost fingers, and an entire film crew in the background of an episode of The Last of Us. As you can see, these mistakes happen and are often fixed after the fact.

Squid Game 2 is now available to stream on Netflix, along with Squid Game Season 1.

The post Squid Game: Season 2 Finale’s Biggest Scene Includes Cameraman in Plain Sight appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Today, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launched its official Squid Game collaboration, headlined by three new modes inspired by the hit Netflix series. The Korean-based show, which just released its second season last week, has been the talk of the Internet for a while, much like the original did back in 2021. Naturally, the marketing has been on fire with appearances at the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight and football games. 

If there was ever a likely teamup, it’s with Call of Duty. The iconic FPS series is known for its out-there collaborations, from Nicki Minaj to The Boys. While Black Ops 6 did return to a more traditional approach in terms of its Campaign and Zombies, the Multiplayer still aims to act like Fortnite in terms of crossovers, much like Warzone. Still, Squid Game’s inclusion does seem to be more substantial, with new modes inspired by the twisted games the contestants go through in the show.

RELATED: Squid Game Season 3 Reportedly Reveals Release Date (By Accident)

Specifically, the new patch adds the long-winded Pentathlon, the insane Squid Game Moshpit, and, of course, the infamous Red Light, Green Light. Patience and resilience is key to winning all these modes, as you’ll complete many objectives and make sure to stop when the Red Light appears. Outside of the collaboration, a ton of bug fixes and balances were given to the Multiplayer and Zombies modes to ensure a good time for all.

Today’s patch notes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 can be found below:

Global

Movement

• Increased all mantle speeds.
• Doors can now be opened and closed while sprinting.

Weapons

• New Cleaver Melee weapon now available via Event rewards.
• Addressed an issue where the player’s view could become obstructed with specific weapons when using the Dark Practitioner Tracer Pack Bundle without an optic.
• Addressed an issue where Gun Screens would not be visible on the Saug Mecha-Drake Mastercraft Blueprint.
• Hawker Hybrid optic now correctly works with the Ginger Dread Blueprint.

UI

• Improved AAR flow.
  • Added a Dismiss button to exit at any point and a timer.
  • Added a Summary at the end.
• Improved readability when searching for a match.
• Addressed an issue where Gun Screens could not be previewed.

NOTE: Some players may see their Operator selections and Operator customizations reset after this update.

Multiplayer

Modes

• Red Light, Green Light (NEW)
  • Young-hee is watching, so don’t misstep at the wrong time. Get on the pitch in the Red Card stadium and play three rounds of Red Light, Green Light, each two minutes long. 
  • In Round 1, no one gets a weapon. In Rounds 2 and 3, you can pick up weapons on the ground and eliminate other competitors with melee attacks and Finishing Moves. There’s just one simple rule: When Young-hee says “Green Light,” the fight is on. Move a muscle after she says “Red Light” and you’re toast.
• Pentathlon (NEW)
  • Prove that you have what it takes in the long run by competing in a series of Multiplayer modes to find out who reigns supreme! Play Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint along with two new mode variants: Piggy Bank Team Deathmatch and Roulette.
    • In Piggy Bank TDM, every elimination adds score to the Mega Piggy Bank; fight for possession of the huge payout when it drops part way through the match. 
    • In Roulette, one-shot eliminations via the Roulette Handgun award double the points, though with each fired shot there’s a chance it’ll blow up in your hands!
• Squid Game Moshpit (NEW)
  • Fire up the Squid Game Moshpit including Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint with a twist as players gain access to three important Squid Game-themed features:
    • Red Light, Green Light Scorestreak: Is the fight getting too hectic for you? Stop the enemy in their tracks with this Scorestreak that calls “Red Light,” commanding all enemy players to stop moving or risk elimination. 
    • Piggy Bank: Eliminated players have a chance of dropping a Piggy Bank that awards a small score boost when picked up. For a bigger payday, watch for the Mega Piggy Bank. Every elimination adds additional score to the Mega Piggy Bank, so once it drops, fight for it to acquire all the deposited score within. 
    • Roulette Handgun: The epitome of high risk, high reward. The Roulette Handgun spawns in the center of the map; grab it to activate a permanent UAV effect while wielding it and land one-shot eliminations against enemies, earning more than double the normal score to help you obtain Scorestreaks more quickly. The catch? Your location will be marked for everyone to see, and every shot has a chance to blow up the weapon, taking you down with it.
• Prop Hunt
  • Improved spatial audio on Prop whistles.
  • Addressed an issue where Prop UI could remain present when switching rounds to the Hunter team.
  • Addressed an issue where Props could block doors from opening when locked in place.

Wildcards  

• High Roller (NEW)
  • Allows players to equip up to four Scorestreaks.

Scorestreaks 

• RC-XD
  • Slightly reduced the RC-XD’s max damage. 
• Archangel Launcher
  • Addressed a rare issue where the next bullet fired from a weapon after using the Archangel Launcher could be an Archangel rocket.
• Care Package
  • Care Packages will now contain the Scout Pulse Scorestreak less frequently.
• LDBR
  • Decreased the damage the LDBR does to its owner.
  • Reduced score requirement from 950 to 800.
• Sentry Turret
  • Increased Sentry Turret fire rate.
  • Increased Sentry Turret HP.
  • Reduced score requirement from 1000 to 950.
• Hellstorm
  • Reduced score requirement from 1050 to 1000.
• Watchdog Helo
  • Slightly increased the Watchdog Helo’s damage.
  • Increased Watchdog Helo accuracy when it acquires a new target.
  • Reduced score requirement from 1100 to 1050.
• Strategic Bomber
  • Reduced score requirement from 1300 to 1100.
• A.G.R. MK 1
  • Top speed increased.
  • Acceleration increased.
  • Addressed an issue where the A.G.R. MK 1 was deploying with less HP than intended. 
• Dreadnought
  • Slightly increased Dreadnought HP.
  • Reduced score requirement from 1800 to 1700.

UI 

• Addressed an issue where the wrong Finisher would sometimes be previewed.
• Addressed various issues with overlapping text.
• Correct Calling Cards now display during the Winner’s Circle in Free-For-All.

Audio 

• Reduced the range of Emote sound effects.

Zombies

Maps

• Citadelle des Morts
  • Elemental Sword Wonder Weapons
    • General
      • All swords can now hit up to two enemies per swing. The additional hit will do damage based on distance.
      • Additional hit damage is 100% at close-to-medium distance and 50% beyond that.
      • Players can now parry Amalgam grabs with Elemental Swords.
      • Addressed an issue where sword damage could be decreased when using the Void Sheath Augment for Aether Shroud.
    • Balmung
      • Ability procs more frequently while charged.
      • Reduced the required kills to charge from 40 to 25.
      • Decreased cooldown from 20 to 10 seconds.
      • Slightly lowered the chance to activate the passive effects to account for the decreased cooldown between activations.
    • Durandel
      • Increased special attack damage.
      • Increased Electric Beam special attack damage per tick from 40% to 65% of base zombie health.
      • Ability now procs more frequently while charged.
      • Decreased cooldown from 25 to 3 seconds.
      • Slightly lowered the chance to activate the passive effects to account for the decreased cooldown between activations.
      • Addressed an issue where Durandel’s charged attack would not be visible to other players.
    • Caliburn
      • Adjusted to activate Napalm Burst Augments when the sword procs, similar to Balmung and Durandal.
    • Solais
      • Slightly reduced effectiveness of Armor regeneration ability.
      • Slightly increased swing interrupt time for sword swing.
      • Lowered Armor regeneration percentage from 5% to 4% per swing.
  • Main Quest
    • Addressed an issue where players could sometimes be unable to pick up the Lightning Rod depending on where it dropped.
    • The Lightning Rod zombie will now return to the Dungeon if there are no players nearby.
    • Addressed an issue where activating the Time Out GobbleGum to progress a round during the Main Quest boss fight would respawn eliminated players in the starting area and down them.
    • Players will now respawn in the boss fight arena.
    • Addressed an issue where Special Round effects would not disable when entering the Main Quest boss fight.
    • Adjusted Deadshot ADS placement to be more accurate against the Main Quest boss.
    • Addressed an issue where Krafft could speak to the player before interacting with him in the Dungeon.
    • Addressed an issue where saving and quitting in a Solo match before speaking to Krafft would prevent Main Quest progression after loading the save.
    • Addressed an issue where the Light Ritual mirrors could not be interacted with after a player joins in progress.
    • Addressed an issue where wisps in the Light Challenge for the Mystic Orb would freeze visually but still count toward completion.
    • Addressed an issue where the Mystic Orb would not be visible to players joining in progress after the Knight’s Ceremony.
    • Addressed an issue where Main Quest progress was not saved when picking up the Mystic Orb after the Knight’s Ceremony and saving and quitting in a Solo match.Addressed an issue where the Durendal sword could be floating upon loading into a saved Solo match.
    • Addressed an issue where melee weapons would not be able to open one of the locks on the Pack-a-Punch container.
    • Closed an exploit where players would take no damage and be unable to move when failing the Sanctuary timed challenge.
    • Addressed some instances where a specific set of interactions could lead to blank objective text.
    • Addressed an issue where the Blood Aetherium Crystal could get stuck in a non-playable area.
    • Addressed some issues with visual effects spawning in non-intended locations.
    • Updated the model for the Mystic Orb.
• Terminus
  • Addressed an issue where players respawned by progressing a round during the Main Quest boss fight with the Time Out GobbleGum would be unable to see the boss’s health bar.
  • Addressed an issue where the Workshop Lockdown Main Quest step would end early by placing a Shock Charge after starting.
  • Speed Boost option now properly functions during the Boat Race Side Quest.

Modes 

• Dead Light, Green Light (NEW)
  • Compete in an undead version of the stop-and-go game in Dead Light, Green Light. In the “Green Light” phase, players gain a bonus to earned Essence, so rack up the zombie eliminations. Once “Red Light” is called, Essence is drained from any player who moves, so spend big before this phase or hang tight to avoid throwing away your hard-earned currency. And it doesn’t end there. When the dreaded “Dead Light” phase begins, prepare for a tough fight as a meaner wave of enemies approach.
  • Available first in Citadelle des Morts, with Liberty Falls added after Week 1.
• Directed Mode
  • Directed Mode now available for Citadelle des Morts with unique rewards.
    • NOTE: The deadline to earn the Main Quest early completion rewards for Citadelle des Morts via Standard Mode has been extended until the end of Season 01 to allow players additional time to complete the Main Quest.
  • Extended time between rounds and the delay between spawning zombies after five looped rounds at the round cap in Directed Mode.
• Training Course
  • Addressed an issue that would prevent the “Getting New Weapons” station from progressing.

Weapons 

• Addressed an issue where players would lose the ability to equip a second weapon if the “Weapon Cycle” setting was enabled.

GobbleGums 

• Addressed an issue that left the player vulnerable briefly while teleporting from “Anywhere But Here!” or “Nowhere But There” GobbleGums.

Ammo Mods 

• Shadow Rift
  • Big Game
    • Big Game will no longer deal lethal damage to Elite enemies.

Field Upgrades 

• Aether Shroud
  • Void Sheath Augment
    • Addressed an issue where melee weapon damage would not be increased.

Scorestreaks 

• Mutant Injection
  • Addressed an issue where Mangler Cannon effects could be stuck on the screen after the Scorestreak has ended.
• Chopper Gunner
  • Addressed an issue where the gun from the Chopper Gunner could be used after the Scorestreak has ended.
• Sentry Turret
  • Addressed an issue that prevented a Sentry Turret from being placed after using the Balmung charged ability.

Power-Ups

• Fire Sale
  • Addressed an issue where rarely Fire Sale would leave an extra Mystery Box on the map.

Enemies

• Doppelghast
  • Addressed an issue where the needle blast from a Doppelghast affected by Brain Rot could harm the player.
• Vermin
  • Addressed an issue where Vermin could sometimes hit twice with one attack.

Activities

• Splitscreen
  • Addressed an issue where zombies would sometimes ignore the host player.

Challenges

• Camo Challenges
  • Addressed an issue where Pack-a-Punched GS45s would not progress the Siamese Camo after Military Camo progression was complete.
• Daily Challenges
  • Addressed an issue where the “Drink 3 Perk-a-Colas” Daily Challenge would not progress.
• Calling Card Challenges
  • Prestige 3: Explosive Surprise
    • Addressed an issue where the Explosive Surprise Prestige 3 Calling Chard Challenge was not tracking properly.
  • Prestige 8: Close Call
    • Updated this Challenge to count kills from teleporting with the “Anywhere But Here!” GobbleGum.
    • Updated this Challenge to also include “Nowhere But There!” GobbleGums.
  • Addressed issues that prevented the following challenges from tracking properly:
    • Trophy Hunter: “Madness”
    • Prestige 6: “Gullible”
    • Prestige 7: “Old Faithful”
    • Prestige 10: “Stupify”

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In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s latest crossover, players can participate in the Squid Game, inspired by Netflix’s adaption of Kaiji. The new in-game event offers players numerous challenges and rewards, as well as limited-time modes in multiplayer, zombies, and Call of Duty: Warzone. However, one mode, in particular, has players the most excited. This is the Young-hee Red Light, Green Light multiplayer mode. While it takes inspiration from the game in the show, this one plays a little differently with a Call of Duty twist. But don’t worry, it’s just as fun and brutal as the original.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Red Light, Green Light game mode, players compete in three rounds. Across all three rounds is the simple rule of only moving when Young-Hee says Green Light. Any still moving when Young-Hee says Red Light will be eliminated. In round 1, players will not have a weapon, but during rounds 2 and 3, they have the opportunity to find and pick up weapons off the ground. After getting a weapon, players can eliminate one another with melee attacks.

RELATED: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 May Be Coming to Xbox Game Pass Soon

In addition to the Red Light, Green Light mode, other multiplayer modes like Pentathlon and Squid Game Moshpit will be added as well. Pentathlon is a competitive mode in which players play a “series of Multiplayer modes to find out who reigns supreme!” These include Domination, Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, and two new mode variants, Piggy Bank Team Deathmatch and Roulette.

Squid Game Moshpit includes Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint. However, there are Squid Game-themed twists, including, Red Light, Green Light Scorestreak, Piggy Bank, and Roulette Handgun. Each of these adds a level of risk and reward while capturing the spirit of the show.

For Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s zombie mode, players can enjoy Dead Light, Green Light. During the Green Light phase, zombie eliminations earn players Essence, which can be spent to purchase weapons and more. During Dead Light, any player who moves will lose Essence. This encourages players to spend before Dead Light or hold still and risk getting overrun.

Finally, Call of Duty: Warzone is getting the Squid Game mode. Players team up and compete in various challenges that can trigger any time. These challenges will force the player to play in specific ways if they want to win. Only the top squads will move on to the next round, while the rest will be eliminated, so make sure you pay attention to the challenge at hand.

For rewards, players can expect Squid Game-themed rewards. These include the Pink Guards Tracer Pack, The VIPS Tracer Pack, the Young-Hee Tracer Pack, and a new event pass with free and premium rewards. Participating in the Squid Game collaboration modes will help players earn XP and unlock all the Squid Game rewards they can. What are you waiting for? Get out and try your luck in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 limited time Squid Game event.

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In an era of endless streaming options, Netflix continues to dominate with its diverse array of binge-worthy content. From heart-pounding dramas to thought-provoking animated series, the streaming giant has mastered the art of keeping viewers glued to their screens for “just one more episode” until full seasons have passed and we completely lost track of time. Whether you’re looking for intense competition, emotional storytelling, or compelling character development, these shows represent the cream of the crop regarding binge-watching potential. Each offers something unique that will keep you engaged through multiple episodes, with narratives so gripping you’ll automatically click “Next Episode” well into the night.

10. Emily in Paris

More than just a fish-out-of-water story, Emily in Paris offers the perfect escape into a glamorous world of fashion, romance, and French culture. The show’s easily digestible 30-minute episodes, stunning Parisian locations, and an endless parade of enviable outfits make it impossible not to watch “just one more.” Emily’s (Lily Collins) marketing adventures and complicated love life create the perfect low-stakes drama that keeps viewers invested without becoming emotionally exhausting, ideal for a leisurely weekend binge.

9. Sweet Tooth

This unique post-apocalyptic fairy tale captures hearts with its perfect blend of whimsy and adventure. The story of Gus, a hybrid deer-boy searching for answers in a transformed world, offers a refreshingly hopeful take on the end times. With stellar performances, especially from young Christian Convery, and a world that feels both magical and grounded, Sweet Tooth creates an irresistible momentum that makes viewers eager to uncover each new mystery and meet each new character.

8. The Lincoln Lawyer

Legal drama fans will find themselves completely absorbed in Mickey Haller’s world of courtroom drama and personal redemption. The show’s episodic cases provide satisfying resolution while maintaining overarching storylines that compel viewers to keep watching. Plus, each episode builds upon the last, revealing more layers of Mickey’s complex character and the intricate web of Los Angeles legal drama, making it perfect for those who love to solve mysteries alongside the protagonist.

[RELATED: 10 Best Netflix Movies That Never Got a Sequel (And Should)]

7. Arcane

This visually stunning animation of Arcane redefines what a video game adaptation can be. With its groundbreaking art style and emotionally charged story of two sisters caught in a city divided, Arcane hooks viewers immediately and never lets go. The show’s dense worldbuilding and complex character relationships reward sustained viewing, while the stunning action sequences and plot twists make it nearly impossible to stop watching once you’ve started.

6. Cobra Kai

This nostalgic yet fresh take on The Karate Kid saga proves impossible to watch casually. The series masterfully balances fan service with compelling new storylines, while its perfectly paced 30-minute episodes make it easy to marathon. The show’s ability to switch between comedy and drama, combined with constant cliffhangers and evolving character dynamics, creates an addictive viewing experience that will have you crane-kicking through entire seasons in no time.

5. Outer Banks

With its attractive young cast, treasure-hunting adventures, and sun-soaked setting, Outer Banks delivers the perfect recipe for an addictive teen drama. Furthermore, the show’s cliffhangers and interweaving storylines of romance, mystery, and class conflict create an irresistible pull that makes it hard to stop watching. Each episode raises the stakes while deepening character relationships, making it the ideal show to devour over a weekend.

4. Stranger Things

This love letter to 1980s pop culture creates an immersive experience best enjoyed in extended viewing sessions. The show’s intricate plotting and multiple character arcs weave together perfectly, with each episode building tension toward explosive season finales. The brilliant blend of horror, science fiction, and coming-of-age drama, coupled with genuine emotional stakes, makes it impossible not to immediately start the next episode to see what happens to these beloved characters.

3. BoJack Horseman

Don’t let the animated format fool you – BoJack Horseman’s deep character development and intricate storytelling demand to be binged. The show’s balance of clever humor and profound emotional depth becomes even more rewarding when watched in longer sessions, allowing viewers to appreciate the complex character arcs and running gags. Each episode helps create a rich tapestry of storytelling that’s best enjoyed in extended viewing sessions, rewarding viewers with one of the most gut-wrenching TV shows on Netflix.

2. Love Is Blind

This innovative dating experiment creates the perfect binge-watching formula by combining genuine emotional stakes with addictive reality TV drama. The unique pod-based courtship process, followed by the couples’ journey toward the altar, creates natural cliffhangers that make it nearly impossible to stop watching. The show’s format of releasing episodes in batches perfectly caters to marathon viewing sessions, as viewers become invested in multiple couples’ journeys simultaneously.

1. Squid Game

The ultimate binge-worthy show, Squid Game mixes edge-of-your-seat tension and deep social commentary. The series’ perfectly paced revelation of its deadly games, combined with complex character development and stunning visual design, creates an absolutely addictive viewing experience. Each episode ends with a compelling cliffhanger that makes it virtually impossible not to start the next one immediately. At the same time, the overarching mystery of the games’ purpose drives viewers to watch “just one more episode” until they’ve finished the entire series. Since the show is nearing its final season, the timing is perfect to start binging it now.

The post 10 Best Netflix Shows to Binge Right Now appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Squid Game’s big comeback to Netflix rocketed the charts to become one of the biggest arrivals in the streaming service’s history. With millions of viewers once again diving into this contest with life-or-death consequences, season two brought the goods in terms of excellent storytelling and earth-shattering twists. One of the best twists that the second season gave to fans was the reveal of a traitor in the midst of the contestants searching for a better life. While a traitor was also a part of the first season’s events, the second season has raised the stakes and given viewers a figure that worked on multiple levels.

Warning. If you have yet to watch Squid Game Season 2, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into serious spoiler territory. Seong Gi-hun found himself in quite the pickle this go-around, as the previous winner of the Squid Game found himself once again entering the contest in a bid to save the lives of participants. In the first season, Gi-hun found himself forging a friendship with an old man named Oh Il-nam, who turned out to be one of the creators of the Squid Game. In an ironic twist, the “001” player of season two is also a spy, albeit one that is far more connected to the overall running of the games. “The Frontman” made the decision to go from behind-the-scenes to being an actual contestant in season two and the twist works brilliantly.

[RELATED: Squid Game Creator Explains Why Season 2 Ends After That Shocking Cliffhanger]

The Front Man’s Diabolical Status

The Front Man, aka Il-nam, arrives at the tail end of the third episode of Squid Game season two. He quickly becomes a fast-friend to Seong and even works to help keep him alive during some of the games, albeit with a fiendish glee when it comes to “throwing” one of the challenges to extend the tension for the lead character. What makes Il-nam all the more terrifying here is that he helps reinforce human nature while seemingly remaining on Gi-hun’s side.

One of the biggest changes to the games this time around is the fact that contestants are given the opportunity to leave the Squid Game following each competition. In one particularly tense moment, “001” even goes so far as to back Gi-hun in imploring contestants to vote to leave with the money they’ve made. Of course, the Front Man has a good read on human nature and knows that they’ll vote to remain, making it all the more intriguing as to how he plays his hand.

Squid Game is Capitalism

The Front Man and the runners of the life-or-death children’s games have positioned themselves perfectly to place these down and out folks against one another. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has stated in the past that the series I meant to be a an “allegory for modern capitalist society” and Squid Game’s second season capitalizes on this fact even more than its first. With the third and final season arriving later this year, it will be interesting to see if any more traitors are placed into Seong’s path.

Want to see what the future holds for the participants of the Squid Game? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Netflix’s runaway hit and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

The post Squid Game’s Season 2 Traitor Elevates The Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Warning! Major spoilers for Squid Game Season 2 to follow! Squid Game Season 2 brings its seven episode run to an end with a rather shocking cliffhanger, and the original creator behind it all explained why they decided to bring it to an end after Seong Gi-Hun’s biggest loss yet. Squid Game Season 2 made its highly anticipated return to Netflix with new episodes at the end of 2024, and has quickly broken records to become the most watched Netflix series ever within its first week of premiere. But it also comes to an end that leaves a ton of questions to answer heading into the grand finale.

Squid Game will be returning with its third and final season next year, and Season 2’s final episode sets this up with Gi-Hun losing his best friend, Jung-Bae. With The Front Man making his move and leaving the game to quash Gi-Hun’s attempt at a rebellion, his final message to Gi-Hun is to kill Jung-Bae right in front of him as consequences of his actions. It’s an emotional hit to Gi-Hun considering Jung-Bae has been a huge pillar of support, and Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk explained to Variety that he ended the season there because it was a closing point for this arc and sets up what’s to come next.

Squid Game Creator Explains That Season 2 Cliffhanger

When asked by Variety about why Squid Game Season 2 ends after Jung-Bae’s death, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that he originally wrote all of this within a single, longer story arc with a greater span of episodes before splitting it in two, “When I first wrote the story of Seasons 2 and 3 it was one long story arc. And I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.” So the creator needed a natural end point in between seasons, “And so I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third.”

As Dong-hyuk details, Squid Game Season 2 is all about Gi-Hun’s attempts coming up in failure, “And when you look at Gi-hun’s story, all of his attempts that he puts in to stop the game: the first one being getting these mercenaries and trying to plant a tracking device, that goes to fail; the second attempt of trying to persuade people to vote so that they can leave the game, that goes to fail as well; and then the third and last attempt of bringing people together and causing the rebellion, it also all goes to fail.” And that failure leads to an even lower point for Gi-Hun as Season 2 ends, “So all of his failures lead to this heavy, heavy crisis of having to lose his very best friend, Jung-bae, at the hands of The Front Man.”

RELATED: Squid Game Season 3 Teases Post-Credits Scene Answers With First Look

Squid Game Creator Has Big Plans for Gi-Hun in Season 3

As Squid Game’s creator further teases, Season 2 ended at this low point because it closes off one piece of Gi-Hun’s character arc and sets up what’s next, “And when you think about Gi-hun’s journey, I thought that that was an adequate moment to put a stop and give him a little bit of closure along that long story arc. And then from that moment on, in the third season, having that sense of huge guilt and sense of failure weighing heavily on him — how is Gi-hun going to carry on his mission? That’s the story that’ll further unfold.”

Squid Game Season 3 will be making its premiere some time later this year, but a concrete release date has yet to be announced as of the time of this publication. It’s also yet to be revealed how many episodes this final season will be, so there are still many questions about what to expect from this grand finale.

HT – Variety

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Warning: This article contains Squid Game 2 spoilers. “If the world doesn’t change,” the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) tells Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in Squid Game season 2, “the game doesn’t end.” As Player 456, Gi-hun was the winner of the 33rd Squid Game’s 45.6 billion won prize — a fortune he’s using to finance a three-year mission to end the deadly games once and for all. Unbeknownst to Gi-hun, who chooses to re-enter the game, he’s not the only returning winner: Hwang In-ho, a.k.a. Front Man, adopts the name “Young-il” and poses as Player 001 after winning the 28th Squid Game in 2015.

The seven-episode second season ends with “Young-il” betraying Gi-hun and his allied players during their armed rebellion against the pink guards. Returning to his Front Man persona, the masked In-ho taunts Gi-hun over his failed “hero games” before eliminating Player 390 — by shooting and killing Gi-hun’s best friend, Park Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan).

[RELATED: Squid Game Universe: Netflix “Has a Plan” for More Squid Game After Third and Final Season, Says Creator]

“Audiences are definitely going to be shocked and very sad to see Jung-bae go,” Squid Game creator and writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk told Netflix’s Tudum. Hwang noted that his friend from outside the games was “the only person within the games that Gi-hun can trust and completely rely on.”

Jung-bae is the final casualty of Squid Game 2, which concludes with Gi-hun screaming in anguish after the squashed rebellion that he believes also took the life of his friend Young-il. As for whether Gi-hun knows that Front Man and Player 001 are one and the same, Lee Jung-jae said, “I don’t think Gi-hun knows the truth yet,” because he’s too busy “blaming himself for everything that happened.”

Hwang added Front Man faking Young-il’s death isn’t a true “betrayal” because “that was his intention and plan all along. That moment is really the climax of season 2. The Front Man starts off the season with his mask off, but then returns to himself and ends with his mask back on.”

Gi-hun and In-ho are diametrically opposed: while Gi-hun tries to spare players’ lives, In-ho refers to the indebted players as “trash.” In-ho is “someone who believes that there is absolutely no hope for the world or humanity,” Lee Byung-hun explained. “It’s almost as if they’re betting against each other. The Front Man is asking questions like, ‘Do you really think you’re going to be able to end the game? Do you really think there’s hope in people? Do you think the world’s going to change?’” 

Squid Game 3 Is Squid Game 2 Part 2

That’s the question going into Squid Game 3. The third and final season is the “second chapter of Gi-hun and Front Man’s showdown,” Hwang teased of the season split into two parts.

After failing to persuade the other players to vote “X” and stop the games (versus voting “O” to continue playing), Gi-hun also “failed at trying to use physical power and strength to go up against those that were hosting the game,” Hwang added. Going into season 3, Lee Jung-jae said of Gi-hun, “His best friend’s gone, he’s been ripped of everything. He’s lost all he’s got.”

Hwang said this “state of deep despair” drives Gi-hun going into season 3. “Is he still going to believe that he will be able to persuade others and leave together or put an end to the game? Or will he give in and become a completely different person? Someone just like the Front Man, who thinks, ‘What can I change?'”

Squid Game 3 premieres later in 2025 on Netflix.

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Squid Game is once-again grabbing the reigns of pop-culture, thanks to the second season of the Korean horror-drama premiering on Netflix. If you haven’t been keeping track: Squid Game has become an entire multimedia franchise, with the main TV series having been adapted into a hit Netflix reality series (Squid Game: The Challenge), while real-life gaming events, video games and a third season of the main series all in the works. Not surprisingly, Netflix has also greenlit an American remake of Squid Game, which is being done by Oscar-winning director David Fincher (The Game, Se7en, Fight Club).

The title “Squid Game” is a perfect embodiment of the uniquely Korean cultural touches that are showcased in the series; it’s logical to expect the US version to follow suit, and highlight childhood games and shared cultural touchstones that are uniquely American. To that end, I have picked some childhood games every American has played, which could be spun into some twisted live-or-death challenges in the Squid Game remake.

Games I Need to See In the Squid Game (US) Remake

Dodgeball

Every kid remembers the class tension of having to stand on the line and face your fellow students and/or campers in a game of dodgeball. The vicious and predatory nature of the game allowed kids to burn off excess energy and anger, with adults using more often than not using it to work out group tensions and settle grievances. That’s to say: dodgeball is as much a group psychological challenge as a it is a physical challenge – a combination of qualities that make it perfect for Squid Game.

There could be any number of ways to make dodgeball lethal: players trying to knock each other off some kind of platform; turning the balls into some kind of lethal weapons, etc. The combination of team strategy and individual performance would make for a very thrilling and dramatic episode – as would the defensive moves in the game (catching, deflecting) that can cause fortunes to suddenly shift on a dime. If a beloved comedy movie can be mined from this game, a great episode of Squid Game should be easy.

Four Square

Four square is actually a game with a long global history – being traced as far back as 12th century France. However, American kids (particularly city kids) grew up with Four square being a regular go-to game, as all it required was chalk, a bouncing ball, the street, and at least four players. It’s a game that in many ways highlights the socio-economic experience of urban America.

A large square is divided into four smaller square (numbered 1-4), with each player occupying a square. The game objective is simple: bounce the ball into another player’s square, while that player must then bounce it into another’s square, before the ball bounces more than once in their square. If a player misses the ball, or allows too many bounces, they’re out, and their square is filled by a player moving up from the lower numbers, or a new player entering square “1.”

It’s easy to see how Four square would be a great choice for Squid Game. The game’s nature would force players to specifically target other players, bringing all underlying tensions and deceptions to the surface. It could be the equivalent of the original show’s “marble game” episode, as groups of players who thought they were close must make hard choices about who (if anyone) they’re really loyal to.

Hopscotch

This one is could be the closest tie between the original Squid Game and the US version. In Episode 7, “VIPs”, the original show introduced one of its most frightening games: a giant glass bridge peppered with a combination of breakable and unbreakable glass platforms. Well, that concept is easy to re-fit into a version of Hopscotch for the US remake.

The Squid Game version of hopscotch would use the game’s process of tossing out a “lagger” and hopping through numbered blocks to retrieve it into a life-or-death gamble. Some squares would hide brutal traps for those who aren’t nimble and quick-footed enough, transforming the iconic grid of numbered blocks into a chilling pathway of doom.

[RELATED: Squid Game Season 3 Is Coming Sooner Than You Think]

Seesaw

Squid Game had several key moments in its first two seasons where democracy was put to the test, by letting the players cast pivotal votes. The US version of Squid Game certainly needs to examine the state of democracy (vs ideas like capitalism), and Seesaw would be the perfect metaphor for both doing that and dealing a game-changing blow to the players.

The setup is simple to envision: all of the players are positioned in the middle of a giant seesaw, but that safety point is gradually taken away, as they are all forced to choose one side of the seesaw or the other – only each side is made to hold about 75% of players, whose combined weight lowers them down to safety, leaving the other 25% raised up in the air, where some horrible device (giant pendulum blade?) slaughters them.

The kicker? Most of the “game” would be a congressional-style debate between the players to stand on one side of the seesaw or the other, forcing them to choose loyalties based on any number of personal, political or spiritual factors. A simple playground ride would suddenly become a deep metaphor for American society.

Uno

Squid Game had a combination of physically-challenging games and smaller strategy games where athletically-disadvantaged players could still thrive. Uno is one of the first card-based games that American kids learn to play, and offers a combination of luck and strategy that would be great for Squid Game.

Like other games on my list, Uno allows for players to form alliances and target other players, or allows a player to quite literally hold cards close to their chest until the most surprising and opportune moment to play it arises. Luck become a factor as players must draw from a deck that can deliver unpredictable twists of fortune. A setup where groups of four players can only result in one winner immediately creates the kind of stakes that viewers won’t be able to turn away from. You’ll never play a game of Uno the same way again, afterward.

Battleship

The reality show Squid Game: The Challenge flipped the script by introducing some new games, and one of them was human-sized version of the iconic board game, Battleship. It would be a great Easter egg nod to Squid Game: The Challenge to have the US version of Squid Game introduce a lethal version of Battleship as part of its games.

The production value of having players in a mini-ocean, aboard mini-warships, blindly firing real ordinance at the opposing team’s boats would be epic. Done right, it could also be powerful commentary on (paid) military service and having to bravely perform duty in the face of peril.

Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap is a board game developed in the 1960s, and is a major staple of many kids’ first experiences with tabletop gaming. The game is especially unique in that it first requires players to work together building an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine – only to turn on each other and use that same machine to trap their opponents.

For Squid Game, the game of Mouse Trap could be US version’s ‘cookie episode.’ That’s to say: players would have to work together to build the machine, and then the “mice” would have to survive the gauntlet of lethal traps and make it to the end of the game board. If the showrunners capture the Rube Goldberg machine element of how the traps are sprung, it turns a Squid Game version of Mouse Trap into a lethal obstacle course race, where the players have to stay on pace ahead of each subsequent trap. It would be thrilling on a whole other level.

Squid Game is streaming on Netflix.

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Squid Game’s second season finally arrived to cap off 2024 by bringing back some familiar faces to once again participate in the life-or-death scenarios. The first season of the Netflix helped to create a brutal universe that helped the series to become one of the biggest in the streaming service’s history, as the second season became one of last year’s biggest television events. As many fans still work their way through the big return of Seong Gi-hun and his mission of taking down the games from the inside, season two threw out a major change when it came to one of the series biggest aspects.

Warning. If you have yet to watch Squid Game Season 2, be forewarned that this article will be diving into spoiler territory for the recent Netflix arrival. When the actual Squid Game first began in the original television debut, the contestants of the life or death struggle were given the chance to leave. Based on a majority vote, the contestants had the possibility of leaving the game but in doing so, would forfeit the chance to win the massive grand prize. In the first season, even though their own lives were on the line, the majority of players voted to stick around at the chance of changing their lives for the better. In season two, things have changed.

[RELATED: Squid Game Season 3 Teases Post-Credits Scene Answers With First Look]

How Does The New Voting System Work?

With Seong returning to the games to take them down, the Front Man decides to change things up to make a point. Rather than simply giving contestants the opportunity to escape the games once, players have the chance to vote for an escape after each game. Thanks to the amount of death and destruction that takes place during each event, you might think that there is incentive enough to want to make an escape but you would be wrong, which is all the more surprising considering the new incentive added.

Not only can contestants vote to escape the Squid Game after each contest, should the players vote to leave, the money would be split amongst those who voted to end the game. This added element not only is a wild curveball to throw into the overarching story, but it examines the human element of the series that much closer. Some contestants beg to make their escape with what money they can but the majority consistently wants the chance to be the sole survivor, and thus, the shocking new element adds a massive wrinkle to season two’s overall tale.

When is Season 3?

Squid Game’s second season consisted of seven episodes in total, leaving many fans to wonder how long it would be before the third, and final season, arrived on Netflix. Luckily, the upcoming season has been confirmed to arrive this year, though a release date remains a mystery. In a recent interview with the outlet Variety, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk let fans know that the final season is coming “soon,” hinting at a summer or fall release.

“At this point, anything I might say is going to be a spoiler, so I want to be cautious. But what I can say is, after Season 2 launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon. I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year.”

Want to see how the Squid Game will finally come to an end this year? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Netflix’s biggest series and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

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Squid Game Season 3 will be returning to Netflix with the final episodes next year, and the first look at what’s to come teases the first details about that mysterious post-credits scene. Squid Game Season 2 made its highly anticipated debut earlier this week, and has already broken records as one of the most watched premieres in Netflix’s history. With Squid Game already announcing that a third season would be bringing the series to an end some time in 2025, the wait for these final episodes is even more palpable than ever before. Now we’ve gotten the first look at what to expect.

Without giving too much away about the final episode of Squid Game Season 2, there’s a brief post-credits scene that queues up the next deadly game for Seong Gi-Hun and the rest of the surviving players. Two giant mechanical dolls are briefly seen with a mysterious crossing light, and now it’s been revealed that these two dolls are named Young-Hee and Chul-Su with the first poster for Squid Game Season 3. You can check it out below as the wait for the final episodes begins.

What Will Squid Game Season 3 Be About?

Speaking with Variety about Squid Game Season 2’s ending leading into Season 3, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk teased what’s coming in the final episodes as such, “But as for the storyline of the third season, Gi-hun having lost everything, including his best friend, and all of his attempts going to failure, it’s now, what is he going to be like? What state is Gi-hun going to be in? And what will he choose to do? Will he continue on with the mission? Is he going to give up or persist? And so you’re going to meet our character Gi-hun at a very critical crossroads as we begin the third season. Gi-hun will not be the man he was in Season 2.”

As Dong-hyuk mentions, the second season ended with Gi-Hun taking a very critical loss. The season had put him through the wringer with a much different kind of story than fans might have expected to see following the end of the first season, and Gi-Hun has been trying to take action to stop the games from the inside. But as he reaches a critical point, a major loss now throws him back into the deadly games as it’s very unclear as to whether or not he’ll survive the final season.

RELATED: Squid Game Season 2 Shatters Netflix Records With First Week of Premiere

When Does Squid Game Season 3 Come Out?

Squid Game Season 3 is currently scheduled for a release with Netflix some time in 2025, but the series has yet to announce a concrete release date for these final episodes as of the time of this publication. It likely won’t be as long of a wait as fans might think considering that these two seasons were pretty much in production at the same time as series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk previously noted that when making the story for the second season, it naturally broke into two as it progressed closer to the end.

That likely means that it won’t be too much of a wait in between these two seasons, and that’s good news considering how big of a cliffhanger Season 2 ends its story on. It’s why this first look at Squid Game Season 3 is so ominous as this is the first look at the next deadly game. With everything that it took to get there, this just might be one of the last games we’ll ever see in this series.

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Squid Game Season 2 made its highly anticipated premiere with Netflix earlier this week, and it’s already breaking all sorts of records with the streamer in its first few days alone. Squid Game was one of the most surprising breakout successes with Netflix in the last few years. The Korean drama hooked fans in ways no one really could predict, and became such a massive franchise that it was no surprise to find out that Netflix would be bringing it back for more episodes. Now that the second season is finally here, Squid Game fans have been flocking to the new episodes as fast as possible.

Squid Game Season 2 has been just as much of a hit as the first season, and Netflix has revealed that this new batch of episodes might have been even bigger than that. According to a new report from Netflix’s Tudum, Netflix revealed that Squid Game Season 2 reached a record high number of viewers for the streaming service in just the first four days since its premiere on December 26th. According to internal numbers, Squid Game Season 2 has already crossed over 68 million views worldwide and it breaks the previous one-week record set by Wednesday in 2022, with 50.1 million views.

Squid Game Season 2 Breaks Netflix Records

As Netflix details, Squid Game Season 2’s 68 million views is broken down across 487.6 million total hours viewed spread across the seven episode, seven hours and ten minute runtime for the season as a whole. As of its premiere, Squid Game has reached the top of the Non-English TV Shows list over releases such as Money Heist: Part 4 and Lupin: Part 1. It’s already become the seventh most-watched Non-English show of all time with Netflix, and has reached the top spot across 92 different countries. So it’s safe to say the hype has not died down for this franchise.

Squid Game Season 2 introduced a much different kind of story than seen in the first season. A shorter run of episodes focused more on Seong Gi-Hun as he not only tried to find out where the games are being played, but he’s doing his best to survive them and somehow bring it all down from the inside. With tons of new characters thrown into the mix for the first real time, it’s been a much different experience than the first season as it gets ready for its grand finale coming next year.

RELATED: Squid Game Season 2 Has Easter Eggs Only K-drama Veterans Will Catch

When Is Squid Game Season 3 Coming Out?

Squid Game will be returning for its third and final season some time in 2025. A concrete release date has yet to be announced for the final episodes as of the time of this publication, but series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk teased that fans can “probably expect” the final episodes to “launch around summer or fall next year.” Without giving too much away for fans who have yet to see the new episodes, Squid Game Season 2 ends on a pretty huge cliffhanger.

While it can be argued that it was the same case with the first season as Gi-Hun stated his intent to go after those who started the games, the end of Squid Game Season 2 ends a much more critical junction. Heading into the final episodes, Gi-Hun has had some significant losses in the games thus far and will likely be forced to continue them until he ends up as the sole survivor once more. But for all the new fan favorites introduced in the second season, hopefully there’s a different outcome at hand as it all comes to its true end.

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Squid Game Season 3 is going to be bringing it all to an end much sooner than we all might think according to the original creator behind it all. Squid Game was one of Netflix’s biggest surprise hits of the 2020s as the Korean drama series broke through to find a huge worldwide audience. It’s become such a massive franchise for Netflix that it returned with a brand new reality game show competition, and the second season of the series finally aired worldwide earlier this week. Now it’s time to wait for the third and final season to come our way next.

Ahead of Season 2’s premiere, it was announced that Squid Game would be coming to an end with a third and final season. Announced for a premiere some time in 2025, it was previously unclear as to how long we would have to wait for these new episodes as the wait for Season 2 was quite lengthy. But in a recent interview with Variety, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that we can expect Season 3 to premiere with Netflix “around summer or fall” in 2025.

When Is Squid Game Season 3 Coming Out?

When asked by Variety about when we could expect to see Season 3 releasing, Squid Game series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk teased that he expected the release date for the new season to be announced relatively soon after Season 2’s premiere, “At this point, anything I might say is going to be a spoiler, so I want to be cautious. But what I can say is, after Season 2 launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon. I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year.”

Dong-hyuk then further teased that Gi-Hun’s going to go through some significant changes with these final episodes as well, “But as for the storyline of the third season, Gi-hun having lost everything, including his best friend, and all of his attempts going to failure, it’s now, what is he going to be like? What state is Gi-hun going to be in? And what will he choose to do? Will he continue on with the mission? Is he going to give up or persist? And so you’re going to meet our character Gi-hun at a very critical crossroads as we begin the third season. Gi-hun will not be the man he was in Season 2.”

RELATED: Squid Game Season 2 Has Easter Eggs Only K-drama Veterans Will Catch

Squid Game Creator Teases What to Expect From Season 3

Dong-hyuk then teased a little bit about what’s coming in Squid Game Season 3, but was very coy when it came to concrete details, “If you saw the hidden clip after the ending credits roll after the last episode of Season 2 — if you watch that clip, it’s going to give you a slight hint as to where Season 3 might take you. I think that’s all I can say, for now.” In further teasing the final episodes, Dong-hyuk teased how intense things are going to be from now on.

“With each episode it’s going to get better,” Dong-hyuk stated. “With each season it’s going to get better and a more expanded story, more intense story, and definitely more entertaining. So just be sure to watch it until the very end!” With Squid Game Season 3 bringing it all to an end some time in 2025, it might not be that long of a wait before we get to see how Gi-Hun’s story comes to an end. And of course, see whether or not he’s able to end the games like he’s setting out to do.

HT – Variety

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After three long years and an ambiguous ending that drove fans crazy, Squid Game is finally back with a second season with higher stakes and even more fascinatingly morbid games. Much like the first season, which was a gateway to K-dramas for many, Squid Game 2 has also drawn in many new fans, though the new season contains certain easter eggs that only K-drama veterans may have spotted.

Besides the many familiar faces in its star-studded cast, Squid Game 2 also has quite a few easter eggs and fun references to other shows that only the most avid K-drama fans may recognize. These include a subtle homage to one actor’s previous role in Strong Girl Bong-soon as well as a genius reference to the iconic 2015 show Reply 1988, proving Squid Game 2 is all about the details this time around.

[Related: Marvel’s Thanos Inspired One of Squid Game Season 2’s Best New Characters]

Squid Game 2 Makes a Subtle Nod to Strong Girl Bong-soon

The first of the easter eggs is found right in Episode 1, which introduces a new character named Woo-seok, played by Jeon Seok-ho, who, along with the boss of Sunshine Capital, is tasked with finding the Squid Game’s recruiter or salesman. While some newer K-drama fans may not be familiar with him, Jeon Seok-ho is best known for his role in Strong Girl Bong-soon, where he played Ahn Min-hyuk’s secretary, Secretary Gong.

Episode 1 of Squid Game 2 seemingly references Seok-ho’s role in Strong Girl Bong-soon right in Episode 1, where one particular scene features Seok-ho’s Squid Game character Woo-seok outside Dobongsan Station, which is coincidentally in the very area where Strong Girl Bong-soon takes place and is even part of Bong-soon’s iconic introductory catchphrase, “Do Bong-soon from Dobongdong, Dobong-gu.”

While it could entirely be just a coincidence, it does seem more intentional when one considers the fact that this particular station was chosen for this scene out of all the 768 subway stations in Seoul that Woo-seok could have been staking out looking for the ddakji man.

Squid Game 2’s Six-Legged Race Uses Reply 1988’s Nostalgic Opening Theme

Another more direct reference to another K-drama in Squid Game 2 can be seen in Episode 5 during the Six-Legged Race. When Gi-hun’s team finally gets their turn, the show switches the music to Shin Hae Chul’s 1988 debut hit “To You” which most notably serves as the opening theme to Reply 1988 and is commonly associated with the show as a result.

Though this may seem like a one-off coincidence, as the song itself is quite popular, Squid Game has actually made more than one reference to Reply 1988 in the past as well. In season 1, Player 456 or Seong Gi-hun actually reveals that both he and Sang-woo grew up in Ssangmun-dong, the same neighborhood where Reply 1988 takes place. In fact, in an interview with CNN back in 2021, Squid Game‘s creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that he too grew up in Ssangmun-dong, with Gi-hun and Sang-woo’s characters being inspired by his own life.

This might also explain why the old neighborhood used during the game of Marbles in season 1 of Squid Game bears such a striking resemblance to that in Reply 1988. Given these countless connections between the two shows and that the choice of music was rather odd for the life-or-death scene it is possible Squid Game 2 may have been paying homage to Reply 1988 after all.

H/T: CNN

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