All the drama ahead on the 3rd and final season of 'Squid Game'
Are you ready to get back in the game? The third season of Squid Game is headed to Netflix on June 27 — the final installment of the South Korean television phenomenon. The series, which follows down-on-his-luck Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he seeks to win a brutal game with a major monetary prize, is a critique of capitalism and the ever-widening wealth gap — but it's also a thriller with endless jaw-dropping reveals and twists. (Spoilers ahead!)
With the last piece of the puzzle soon to be unveiled, here's what you need to know about Squid Game.
Netflix is dropping all episodes of Squid Game's third season on June 27 — a very fast turnaround from its last season, which hit the platform on Dec. 26, 2024. Meanwhile, the gap between the first and second season of Squid Game was more than three years, with the first season debuting on Sept. 17, 2021.
The show's creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, previously told Entertainment Weekly that Seasons 2 and 3 are actually one continuous story but were split into two seasons because of the number of episodes — which is also why the third season is arriving sooner than expected.
The first season of Squid Game saw Gi-hun entering the last-man-standing competition, in which the wealthy watch as poor players battle it out in a variety of deadly challenges for a shot at a life-changing cash prize — 456 billion won, which is around $33 million. Gi-hun wins but is forever changed by the cruelty and violence he experienced. He's hellbent on destroying the game — even if that means returning to the arena.
In Season 2, Gi-hun reenters the Squid Game in order to take it down from the inside — which, of course, was always going to be easier said than done. Instead of convincing his fellow participants to walk away from the game, or successfully taking down the game makers with his rebellion, the second season ends with Gi-hun having lost nearly everything. His allies are dead, including his best friend, Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), who was killed by the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun).
According to Netflix, the cast of Squid Game Season 3 includes:
Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun/Player 456
Lee Byung-hun as Front Man
Wi Ha-jun as Hwang Jun-ho
Yim Si-wan as Myung-gi/Player 333
Kang Ha-neul as Dae-ho/Player 388
Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-ju/Player 120
Yang Dong-geun as Yong-sik/Player 007
Kang Ae-sim as Geum-ja/Player 149
Jo Yuri as Jun-hee/Player 222
Lee David as Min-su/Player 125
Roh Jae-won as Nam-gyu/Player 124
Park Gyu-young as No-eul
The third season of Squid Game brings us back to the same game played in Season 2 — but despite staging a failed rebellion, Gi-hun is not out of the woods yet.
As the teaser shows, Gi-hun is brought back into the game in a coffin and forced to play a series of new childhood games with a violent twist. Those games include a very dangerous round of jump rope and a maze experience that quickly descends into violence. Naturally, the scenes have a disturbing playful aesthetic that hides their true nature.
In a letter to fans, Dong-hyuk wrote, 'Seong Gi-hun who vowed revenge at the end of Season 1 returns and joins the game again. Will he succeed in getting his revenge? Front Man doesn't seem to be an easy opponent this time either. The fierce clash between their two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3.'
The creator isn't totally ruling out more Squid Game. Dong-hyuk told IndieWire earlier this month that he already has a potential plan. "I have an idea," he said. "Our next spin-off will be a story happening between Season 1 and 2. There was like a three-year gap between Season 1 and 2, so I will show what they did for those times."
If you're eagerly anticipating more Squid Game, you can check out Netflix's reality show Squid Game: The Challenge, a game show based on the TV series. The show has 456 contestants compete in challenges inspired by the South Korean drama for a cash prize of $4.56 million. (Obviously, no contestants are killed — just kicked off.)
And if that's not enough, Netflix also has Squid Game: The Experience, a tourist attraction currently in New York City in which you can compete, too. Unfortunately, there's no cash prize in this one.
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And I overthink, and I think me and Max are kind of the same when it comes to that. So it was definitely, I was excited because it's always great when you can bring something to screen that you know a lot of people will resonate with, um, but it also sucked because obviously I'm like living in her shoes and and all these scenes where people are, you know, calling her dramatic or like just there's like inside jokes that she doesn't understand like. It's hard. It's hard to like be in that skin and actually have that happen to you. So it was definitely a challenge, but also one that I'm really proud of because I, I really do think it translates on screen quite beautifully. Felix, for you, I mean, you sat with this character for a bit, but honestly that last episode, I think your character like broke me. 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Brandfree, one scene in particular that's interesting is when um Georgia has an interesting moment with Marcus that kind of like she's able to confide in him a little bit, but also see similarities. What was it like to to get that moment because I think it's particularly unique. This Georgia Marcus relationship is really interesting. To explore because I think they're probably the two people in this world who love Ginny the most, and they have that in common. And then ironically, Georgia can recognize herself in Marcus and I think it's really beautiful. It's, it's again another very small example where we see a little bit of change from Georgia. She's sort of able to step outside of herself, outside of herself and help not only Marcus, but also it's her relationship with Marcus's mom too, and that's very new for her and and she doesn't always get it right. So, Definitely a work in progress. I have to ask because every time I get to the end of one of these seasons, I'm like shocked by whatever the cliffhanger is, and you get a shock when you get to the end to read them to be like, oh, we're going there for potentially next season and where it's gonna go? Of course, yeah, I'm like how how are we doing this? How does this work? Like, huh? Yeah. Oh, OK. I had to read like I think I had to read the last few pages of episode 10 5 times before I understood what was happening. Um, and I still don't think I get it, uh, which is good, is good. It keeps me on my toes, very present, yeah.
