Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the most popular South Korean series that launched last year Squid Game, revealed that two big names in the survival drama series will be coming back for the second season.
According to Deadline, this reveal came at the magazine’s annual Contenders Television at Paramount Studios, where Hwang and actor Park Hae-soo, who played Cho Sang-woo in the series, joined TV editor Peter White to talk about some of the things that fans can expect for Season 2. During the event, the writer and director divulged that two characters in the series will be returning: the protagonist and one of the main antagonists. “Gi-hun for sure.” Hwang revealed, “He will be back, and I believe the Front Man will back too."
This year’s winner of the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor for his role in the dystopian series, Lee Jung-jae, was Gi-hun, the only survivor and winner of the series of deadly kids’ games. At the end of the season, Gi-hun is shown deciding against going to see his daughter in the US, and instead, he appeared to have decided to put a stop to the brutal annual games he was a part of. The Front Man, on the other hand, played by Korean star Lee Byung-hun under the mask, is the antagonist who spearheaded the game’s organization, overseeing everything as the 456 penniless players risked their lives for the astounding prize of over 45 billion won.
The return of these characters should come as no surprise since they were part of the few that survived to the end of the series. Still, this was Hwang’s first official confirmation that fans will be seeing them back for Season 2. Around mid-March, the creator also said at PGA Awards that HoYeon Jung, who portrayed player 67, Kang Sae-byeok, could come back as a twin sister, however, this may have been only a joke.
Hwang also explained that the themes present in Squid Game, like economic inequality, will continue to be part of the Netflix series as well as his future works: “For this project and in future projects, it’s impossible not to consider the political polarization, the cultural differences and difficulties, as well as environmental climate changes that have been happening. I will be forced to observe and criticize and continue to handle these topics in future projects.”
Since it was released in September of last year, Squid Game became the most-viewed Netflix series. Fans around the world now eagerly await more details concerning Season 2 to come out.