'Squid Game' season 2 gets green light at Netflix

'And now, Gi-hun returns,' says creator Hwang Dong-hyuk

Green light, red light game played in 'Squid Game'. Photo: Netflix

A scene from 'Squid Game'.

In the Netflix show, participants die when they fail to complete the games.

Oh Yeong-su plays Oh Il-nam, an elderly man with a brain tumour.

Jung HoYeon and Heo Sung-tae play characters who risk their lives to compete for the prize money.

Lee Jung-jae as lead character Seong Gi-hun, a gambling addict.

Anupam Tripathi as Pakistani worker Ali Abdul.

The show has been a runaway hit for Netflix since it premiered on September 21.

In 'Squid Game', players compete in adapted versions of popular children’s playground games in the hope of freeing themselves from financial burden.

Jung HoYeon plays a North Korean defector in the series.

Masked enforcers ensure losers from each game are duly eliminated.

After much speculation, Squid Game is definitely coming back for a second season, Netflix has said.

“And now, Gi-hun returns,” director, writer and executive producer Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote in a letter to fans. “The Front Man returns. Season 2 is coming.”

The wildly popular, multi-award-winning, nine-episode South Korean show — one of the streaming platform's most-watched — follows a group of 456 debt-ridden contestants who are placed in an arena where they compete in a series of deathly children's games until one emerges as the winner of a $38.5 million prize.

Hwang teased new characters and developments in his letter for season two.

“The man in the suit with ddakji might be back,” he wrote, referring to the mysterious man who recruits players.

Viewers will also meet Cheol-su, the “boyfriend” of Young-hee, the show's much-recognisable animatronic doll.

She appears in the new 10-second teaser trailer Netflix also released on Sunday.

Season two of the show has been talked about before.

Earlier this year Hwang told Deadline he had yet to start the script, but that it was in the pipeline.

“There will be more great games, that’s all I can say,” Hwang said in an interview with the entertainment news website. “I’m just still brainstorming and collecting the ideas for season two. I haven’t even started with the writing yet.”

He confirmed that Lee Jung-jae will return in season two as the main character, Seong Gi-hun.

He also hinted that he could find creative ways to bring back past characters such as HoYeon Jung who played Kang Sae-byeok, aka Player 067, during the Producers Guild Awards.

“I’ll try something to bring them back to season two,” Hwang said. “Let’s say maybe [Kang] has a twin sister; you’ll see.”

The first season of the show debuted in September 2021 and became a global phenomenon. It was the top-watched show in 94 countries, with more than 142 million households tuning in to watch it and 1.65 billion viewing hours recorded during its first four weeks.

It gave rise to trends across the world, as event organisers emulated the challenges, albeit in a less deadly way, and restaurants started serving up dalgona, the sweet served up for one of the games in the show.

The impact on equity investors in South Korea also proved equally intense.

Real-life 'Squid Game' in Abu Dhabi — in pictures