Warning: spoilers for Squid Game are ahead.
Are you ready for round two of Squid Game? Of course you bloody are. Not since Tiger King has a Netflix show overtaken the entire world to this level.
Violent, explosive, intriguing, even anti-capitalist, it’s really tapped into the zeitgeist in a big way. One of its stars, HoYeon Jung, went from 400,000 followers to 12 million (and counting) in just two weeks. Twitter and TikTok have been flooded with inside jokes and memes. Much like the actual Squid Game itself, it’s inescapable.
Luckily Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show’s creator, has confirmed a second series. After the way the first season’s finale ended – with Seong Gi-hun choosing to not board the flight to Los Angeles to see his daughter in order to discover the secrets of the Squid Game – it really set everything up perfectly for a second season. Plus Netflix really aren’t the sorts to accept a billion dollar bonanza like Squid Game not continuing.
We thought we’d do some of the director’s dirty work and consider Squid Game‘s second season: see below for our 3 ideas for where the series could go next.
For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.
Love Film & TV?
Get the latest Film & TV news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Focus on the red guards
Who are those mysterious red guards? There’s been lots of guessing online about their identity. One popular online theory noted that when Gi-hun played the game ddakji with the recruiter, Gi-hun picked blue paper over red. It seemed random but this theory posits that which colour you choose determines whether you became a guard or a contestant.
With that in mind, it would be fascinating to follow the recruitment of one of the red guards in season 2. Maybe he’s a young disillusioned soldier; maybe he’s a down-on-his-luck man who then has to guard his own brother who turns out to be one of the blue contestants.
And what was going on with the group of red guards organ harvesting in season 1? How did they first come together to decide to do such a risky thing? There’s lots of potential storylines within the red guards.
https://twitter.com/mixxtake/status/1441388811955556364?s=20
Redemption of The Front Man
One of the biggest twists in the first season was The Front Man turning out to be Hwang In-ho, the brother of police officer Hwang Jun-ho. Although he shot his policeman brother, sending him presumably plunging to his death off a cliff, The Front Man seems genuinely affected by it.
We last see him after Il-nam (the elderly man from the Squid Game who turned out to be the mastermind of the games) dies, raising questions about their connection.
We also know that Hwang In-ho actually won the survival competition previously: maybe this determines who gets to be The Front Man.
After the death of Il-nam, the hierarchy of the people controlling the games is unclear. If Hwang In-ho is now the head, perhaps the death of his brother could force him to find redemption through sabotaging the survival competition or ending the whole thing forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uhsBDBcQMI
The revenge of Kang Sae-byeok’s brother
Revenge for the death of a loved one is a classic trope and it could suit Squid Game perfectly. Season 2 could be set several years in the future: Kang Cheol is now an adult and, having discovered the truth about his sister’s death, seeks vengeance. He enters the competition, which is still going strong, and battles to find out the truth behind it all.
This path for season 2 also potentially sets up another incredible twist: Gi-hun becoming The Front Man himself, having replaced Hwang In-ho for some reason. How dark!
