Squid Game season 2: release date, trailer, confirmed cast, plot synopsis, and everything else we know about the popular Netflix show’s return

Squid Game season 2 is – at the time of this article’s latest update – just over one week away. The hugely successful survival drama will finally launch on Netflix on December 26, 2024. There’s no time like the present, then, to catch up on what we know about Squid Game‘s next season.

In this guide, we’ve rounded up the latest and most important intel on one of the best Netflix shows‘ sophomore outings. That includes more details on its cast, story synopsis, various trailers, and the hit show’s future on Netflix. Full spoilers follow for Squid Game season 1, while potential season 2 spoilers are also on the way.

Squid Game season 2 will be released on Thursday, December 26. That announcement came in late August, with Netflix confirming one of its most-watched TV Originals would return on its streaming platform in time for the festive season.

There’s still no word on whether season 2 it’ll be released in full, but we suspect it will. Many of Netflix’s most successful shows have been released in two parts in recent years, including the latest seasons of Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, and Cobra Kai. However, with all eight episodes of Squid Game season 1 launching on the same day in late 2021, we think its sequel will similarly receive a full season release on launch day.

Squid Game season 2’s final trailer was released on November 27, and it teased a mother and son duo that’s already worrying us about the inevitable heartbreak that’s sure to follow.

After waiting so long an official trailer, that teaser arrived three weeks after its first, which revealed a big plot twist that I can’t wait for in the wildly popular Netflix show’s next chapter. You can watch that trailer below:

Ahead of those trailers being released, Netflix had only drip fed us clips and other teasers ahead of season 2’s highly anticipated debut – the most recent of those, which arrived in early October, was a stylish albeit short trailer that teased the return of a fan-favorite character. Before then, the closest thing we have to an official trailer was a 60-second teaser that dropped during Netflix Geeked Week 2024 and confirmed some more big plot details about the hit Netflix show’s return.

The only other footage that aired prior to those September drops came via a season 2 launch date announcement teaser and a brief first clip of Squid Game season 2, which showed Gi-hun on a John Wick-style quest for revenge.

Full spoilers follow for Squid Game season 1.

Here’s the confirmed cast for Squid Game season 2 so far:

• Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
• Lee Byung-hun as Front Man
• Gong Yoo as The Recruiter
• Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
• Lee Seo-Hwan as Jung-bae
• Yim Si-wan as Myung-gi
• Kang Ha-neul as Dae-ho
• Jo Yu-ri as Jun-hee
• Lee Jin-uk as Gyeong-seok
• Yang Dong-geun as Yong-sik
• Kang Ae-sim as Geum-ja
• Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-Ju
• Chae Jook-hee as Seon-nyeo
• Park Gyu-young as No-eul
• Lee David as Min-su
• Choi Seung-hyun as Thanos
• Roh Jae-won as Nam-gyu
• Won Ji-an as Se-mi

The first four actors aside, everyone else will play season 2’s new game contestants. You can learn more about them and why they’ve signed up to the game in the below YouTube video:

Interestingly, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has spoken of his desire to see US actors make surprise appearances in future seasons. Speaking to Variety, Hwang confirmed he wanted to see Hollywood stars show up, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, although that won’t happen this season.

Full spoilers follow for Squid Game season 1. Possible season 2 spoilers are also discussed.

Here’s Squid Game season 2’s plot synopsis: “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 [Seong Gi-hun] remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”

A more recent Netflix press release has also shed new light on more about season 2’s story. “Player 456 gave up going to the States and comes back with a new resolution in his mind. Gi-hun 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 won. With a hardened demeanor and the scars of past games, Gi-hun is on a desperate mission to expose the deadly truth of the competition. Yet, his warnings go unheeded, and tensions rise as fellow players question his intentions.”

A new life-threatening round of the famous, fictional gameshow, then, is on the cards. That’s in spite of Gi-hun’s clear reluctance to take part once more, given what happened to him and his fellow contestants last time around. However, if he wants to seek revenge on Front Man and company – read more details about why in our Squid Game season 1 ending explained article – he has no choice but to participate again.

Initially, it didn’t make sense for Gi-hun to return and partake in the lethal games once more. Foregoing this part of the narrative, though, would’ve eliminated much of what makes Squid Game so entertaining: the games themselves. Hwang himself also revealed (via Vanity Fair in June 2022), that season 2 will definitely feature more of the show’s famously perilous and gruesome puzzles, which confirmed Gi-hun would stage a dramatic return to the remote facility.

So, what of the games themselves? Hwang says (per the aforementioned Vanity Fair piece) that fans will “be introduced to Young-hee’s boyfriend, Cheol-su” – a reference to the series’ now-iconic murderous robot doll – in season 2. Cheol-su, it seems, is a male companion of Young-hee – and one we expect to be equally terrifying.

Young-hee will be back to rack up her kill count in iconic game ‘Red Light, Green Light’, as evidenced by her season 2 trailer appearance, too. Young-hee was responsible for 255 fatalities in season 1, making ‘Red Light, Green Light’ the deadliest game featured in its nine episodes. Expect her to take more lives this season, then.

Cheol-su’s debut notwithstanding, we also know there’ll be one other new game in the show’s sophomore outing – except it’s not a traditional game. Indeed, as season 2’s first trailer revealed, at the end of every round, the remaining contenders will vote on whether to continue playing. If the majority agrees with walk away, they’ll apparently receive a share of the money they’ve accumulated so far. If, though, the majority vote to carry on playing, they can add more cash to the prize pool – well, providing they survive whatever trials come next. Clearly, it seems many will latter the favor, despite Gi-hun’s pleas for them to vote for the former.

Other possible Squid Game season 2 storylines include examining the fate of Hwang Jun-ho, the undercover cop who discovers Front Man to be In-ho, aka his brother. Although he was shot and subsequently fell off the edge of a cliff, Wi Ha-joon, who plays Jun-ho, is part of the season 2 cast, so he clearly survived the encounter. Considering we still don’t know In-ho’s motivation for becoming the game’s Front Man, this seems another subplot that’ll be explored.

Hwang also hinted at the possibility of following the mysterious Recruiter in more detail, telling THR: “I could also go into the story of that Recruiter in the suit who plays the game of ddakji with Gi-hun and gives him the card in the first episode”. With The Recruiter is also confirmed to return, season 2 should include this particular subplot.

As for what else we could see: the rest is a mystery. Hwang told Empire magazine that season 2 will feature “a deeper, more advanced story”, before adding that “the second season is much crueller, scarier and more gruesome than the first”. Outside of that, though, Squid Game‘s creator is staying tight-lipped on what’s to come. Here’s hoping that’s the case, anyway, and the series’ second installment doesn’t disappointingly go through the motions.

Squid Game season 2 won’t be the show’s last installment, but its follow-up season will be. Confirmed in a Netflix press release and an open letter from Hwang, the main series’ third season will wrap up Gi-hun’s story in 2025. Speaking to IndieWire, Hwang that, due to what happens in season 2, “the ending to Season 3 actually ended up [in] a different direction than what I had initially conceived of”. Color us very intrigued.

Pleasingly, the main show’s third and final chapter won’t be the end of the franchise. In June, it was reported that film auteur David Fincher had halted worked on his Chinatown TV remake in favor of pursuing an English language reinterpretation of Squid Game. It’s unclear if the latter will be a movie or a TV show.

Then there’s Squid Game: The Challenge, Netflix’s popular reality spin-off based on the fictional series. The controversy-laced show, which follows the same rules as the fictional show minus the actual death, proved to be popular with viewers following its November 2023 release. Unsurprisingly, then, a second season is already in development.

Lastly on the ‘confirmed projects’ front, a satire-based series – based on Squid Game‘s success – titled ‘The Best Show on the Planet‘ is also getting made (per Deadline). Fans will be pleased to hear that Hwang is crafting this show, too.

What’s more, given that Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has spoken of a “Squid Game universe” when he announced the show’s season 2 renewal, there are likely other spin-offs that have discussed in the corridors of power. How many of them will see the light of day? We aren’t sure, but let’s just hope it isn’t delivered in the form of one of Squid Game‘s chill-inducing invitation cards.

For Netflix TV show-based coverage, read our guides on Stranger Things season 5, Wednesday season 2, The Night Agent season 2, and The Witcher season 4.