With season two of Squid Game confirmed to be on the way, the show’s creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has opened up about potential storylines, hinting at a change in direction for Seong Gi-hun, the character played by Lee Jung-jae.
“I’m not really in the right place to be discussing season two in an official setting,” admits the director, speaking in a virtual Entertainment Weekly panel. However, he goes on to reflect on potential themes for season two, adding: “In the first season that we saw Gi-hun is a character whose humanity is shown through or exposed in certain situations.”
“In other words, his humanity is shown through a very passive manner. But I would think that in the second season, what he has learned from the games and his experience in the first season, they will all be put to use in a more active manner.”
If you still haven’t caught up with the viral South Korean survival series on Netflix, then you might want to stop reading now — there are big spoilers ahead. Hwang Dong-hyuk goes on to compare the Squid Game winner’s narrative arc to the moral tests in Star Wars.
“As for the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) who was also a past winner but became a Front Man, it’s like Darth Vader,” he says. “Some end up Jedi and some become Darth Vader, right? I think that maybe Gi-hun will go through a certain critical point where he is put through a test as well.”
Lee Jung-jae, who also appeared during the panel, jokingly adds: “If I had to be a Front Man, I would be the most scary Front Man you would ever see.”
Elsewhere at the event, Park Hae-soo (AKA Squid Game’s Player 218) reflected on the success of the show, which has inspired everything from ill-advised reenactments to real-life protests for better working conditions (besides the usual moral panics about violent media).
Specifically, the actor praised the creative team for producing a “uniquely Korean story” in Squid Game. “The fact that something we prepared for a long time and showcased to the world in the Korean language and filled with Korean culture,” he says, “the fact that this was loved by so many around the world and so many people related to it, that was something I'm really proud of.”
