The second season of the South Korean dystopian survival thriller television series Squid Game, marketed as Squid Game 2, is created by Korean television producer and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk. It was released on Netflix on December 19, 2024.
The season stars Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Wi Ha-joon, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-wook, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-shim, and Jo Yu-ri.
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
It is set four years after Seong Gi-hun won the Squid Game, giving up on going to the United States and returning to the games with the intent of stopping them once and for all. He once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of ₩45.6 billion. A side-plot of the season sees Hwang Jun-ho trying to locate Gi-hun with help from hired mercenaries.
Within the first three days of release, the second season had 68 million views, exceeding the highest premiere viewership for Netflix held by the first season of Wednesday at 50.1 million views during its premiere week. According to Netflix, the season ranked at No. 1 in 92 countries. The season garnered positive reviews from critics, though it was generally deemed inferior to the first season. The third and final season, which was filmed back-to-back with the second season, will be released in 2025.
Lee Byung-hun as Hwang In-ho, the Front Man
Main cast of season2
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
Lee Byung-hun as Hwang In-ho, the Front Man
Im Si-wan as Lee Myung-gi
Lee Seo-hwan [ko] as Park Jung-bae
Kang Ha-neul as Kang Dae-ho
Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
Park Gyu-young as Kang No-eul
Lee Jin-wook as Park Gyeong-seok
Park Sung-hoon as Cho Hyun-ju
Yang Dong-geun as Park Yong-sik
Kang Ae-shim as Jang Geum-ja
Jo Yu-ri as Kim Jun-hee
casting review
In April 2022, Hwang confirmed that the characters of Gi-hun and the Front Man would return for the second season. During Netflix’s Tudum: A Global Fan Event in June 2023, Lee Jung-jae was confirmed to reprise his role alongside Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo and Wi Ha-joon. On June 29, Netflix released more info on the new season’s cast, which includes Kang Ha-neul, Park Sung-hoon, Im Si-wan, Yang Dong-geun, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-wook, Won Ji-an, Jo Yu-ri, Kang Ae-shim, Choi Seung-hyun, Lee David, and Roh Jae-won.
Prior to the season’s release, the casting choice of Park Sung-hoon as transgender ex-soldier Hyun-Ju was controversial due to some wanting a trans person to authentically portray their experiences. Criticism fell on both the casting of a cisgender person for the role instead of a transgender person, as well as for casting a man in particular as opposed to a woman. Some argued in response to this criticism that South Korea is conservative with regards to LGBTQ rights, and that trying to find a transgender actress willing to put herself in the spotlight was not reasonable People also opined that having a trans character in a South Korean series at all is an important step in representation. On December 18, 2024, during press day for Squid Game 2, director and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk spoke to a group of journalists, about why he wanted to include a trans character this time around:
“The people who come to join the games in Squid Game are usually marginalized or neglected from society, and not just financially speaking, but people who would belong to marginalized groups. In season one, the representative character for that was Ali, who was a foreigner working in Korea, which is one of the most representative minority groups in Korea. Currently today, unfortunately, in the Korean society the gender minority is a group that is not as accepted widely within society. I wanted to create a character that would represent that. Acceptance of trans people has gotten better recently, but it’s still not where it needs to be. In Korea, when you are a gender minority, it is not as widely accepted yet, unfortunately, and you are still seen to be very much out of the norm. And so by creating a character like Hyun-ju, through her choices, her actions, and the way she carries herself in the game, I hope that that could raise awareness of these issues that we face today.”
Though Hwang wanted to cast a transgender actor for the role, it was difficult to find such an actor in Korea due to the above issues, and believed that Park’s prior roles in The Glory and Queen of Tears made him capable of portraying the role.
Jo Yu-ri, who portrayed Kim Jun-hee (김준희, 222), is best known as a former member of the South Korean–Japanese girl group IzOne. She first gained prominence after participating in Mnet’s reality competition series Produce 48 in 2018, where she finished in third place and debuted with IzOne on October 29, 2018. Following Iz*One’s disbandment in April 2021, Jo embarked on a successful solo career, releasing her debut single album Glassy in October 2021, which garnered her several nominations for Rookie of the Year at major music awards.
On December 4, 2024, T.O.P was revealed as a cast member through the official Netflix YouTube account in the form of a “Meet the Cast” video. He would play the role of a former rapper, Thanos, fallen from grace due to a crypto scam. The character was created before casting, T.O.P receiving the role after Hwang found his “serious” approach. Hwang explained that he wanted to cast someone who stopped working due to drugs, T.O.P retiring from the K-pop industry and leaving BigBang over a marijuana conviction. The casting of T.O.P received controversy in South Korea, the actor’s face blurred on the Korean show Live This Morning when airing a segment about the show. The casting led to some viewers to believe that Lee Jung-jae, who portrayed Seong Gi-hun and was close to T.O.P, had gotten him the role, a claim that Lee denied. Netflix and Hwang received criticism for this casting for possibly setting a bad precedent.
T.O.P was absent for a time from promotional events with the cast.Responding to speculation that he was removed from promotional events over the controversy, Hwang said that they planned to not have him featured from the beginning, wanting T.O.P to be able to talk about his involvement at his own pace.
He felt that he had “a lot of guts” for agreeing to do the performance considering his history with drugs,
and was surprised that he had still not been forgiven. He also believed that the reaction to his casting would not be reflected outside of Korea due to different legality and opinions on marijuana use in some countries. He also believed that his character may prove popular with younger viewers in Korea.
