One way or another, whether Seong Gi-hun succeeds in dismantling the game from the inside or not, Squid Game will conclude on June 27.
The announcement poster for the hit Netflix show carries an ominous tone. A pink soldier drags a contestant’s body toward the signature black-pink coffin, its bow stark against a field of flowers. Above them loom the shadows of Young-hee and Chul-soo—the latter teased in Season 2’s mid-credits scene as a possible new figure in the “Red Light, Green Light” game.
Accompanying this announcement were still images from Season 3, featuring Lee Byung-hun, both with and without his Front Man mask. Park Gyu-young‘s Kang No-eul, one of the pink soldiers introduced in Season 2, gazes up at something outside the usual enclosed setting of the games. Another image shows a group of “X” players—Jo Yuri, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-shim, and Park Sung-hoon—mourning over an unrevealed player. In the final image, Lee Jung-jae‘s Seong Gi-hun glares at someone while handcuffed to a post in the players’ sleeping quarters.
Hwang Dong-hyuk‘s Squid Game had been in development for a decade. He first conceived the idea of a deadly survival game as a way to escape financial hardship in 2009, but it didn’t come to fruition until 2019 when Netflix picked it up for streaming. When the show premiered in September 2021, it became the first Korean drama to rank number one on Netflix’s global Top 10 weekly most-watched TV shows. The first season amassed over 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first 28 days and remains the platform’s most-watched show.
The show’s immense popularity led to the announcement of two more seasons, though Season 2 took longer to release. Since Hwang initially wrote it as a single-season story rather than a multi-season arc, production extended until December 26, 2024. Despite the delay, Season 2 achieved the same resounding success and even earned a Golden Globe nomination before its premiere.
The story follows a deadly competition where 456 players, all drowning in financial debt, voluntarily participate in a series of children’s games for a chance to win 45.6 billion won. Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father and gambling addict, wins the competition in Season 1, but the trauma leaves him shattered. Determined to end the games for good, he returns in Season 2 to take them down.
Squid Game Season 3 premieres on Netflix on June 27. The first two seasons are available to stream.
Source: X, formerly known as Twitter
