By As “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk was creating the second season of his smash hit Netflix series, it started become too big to fit into a single season.
As a result, the series opted to deliver two seasons – both of which were shot together but to be released separately. The second season arrived just after Christmas with the third expected out sometime next year.
As the decision was made during production, it results in a shorter seven-episode second season that abruptly stops. The final episode shakes up the formula but also ends on a dark cliffhanger with the fate of multiple characters unclear and several story threads left hanging in mid-air.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “SQUID GAME” SEASON 2
Speaking with Variety, Hwang explains his decision to end it where he does:
“When I first wrote the story of Seasons 2 and 3 it was one long story arc. And I was originally planning to write this story across a span of about eight to nine episodes, but once I finished the story, it came to over 10 episodes, which I thought was too long to contain in a single season.
So I wanted to have an adequate point where I could give closure as a second season and then move on with the third. And when you look at Gi-hun’s story, all of his attempts that he puts in to stop the game… [it] all goes to fail. So all of his failures lead to this heavy, heavy crisis of having to lose his very best friend, Jung-bae, at the hands of The Front Man.
And when you think about Gi-hun’s journey, I thought that that was an adequate moment to put a stop and give him a little bit of closure along that long story arc. And then from that moment on, in the third season, having that sense of huge guilt and sense of failure weighing heavily on him – how is Gi-hun going to carry on his mission? That’s the story that’ll further unfold… Gi-hun will not be the man he was in Season 2.”
The finale included brief clips offering glimpses of games to come in the third season, including a new version of “Red Light, Green Light”. Hwang won’t go into any detail about that, but does add that with each episode “it’s going to get better… a more expanded story, more intense story, and definitely more entertaining. So just be sure to watch it until the very end!”
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