Squid Game creator and star handle fan ‘anger’ over divisive ending
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter
The creator and star ofSquid Game have addressed disdain over season two’s ending.
Season two of Netflix’s most-watched TV show of all time arrived on Boxing Day (26 December), three years since it first took the world by storm.
However, while viewers have been mostly impressed by the follow-up and its new array of characters, they were left divided over the action-packed final episode, which ended with a cliffhanger teeing up what will be the third and final season in 2025.
Both Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed the final episode, and Lee Jung-jae, who returns as Gi-hun AKA Player 456, predicted that fans might be left rather frustrated by the final scene.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
In the final episode of the show, Gi-hun AKA Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae), who won the games in the first season, leads an uprising against the shadowy bosses in charge of the game by taking the weapons of the pink-costumed assassins who carry out the deadly challenges.
Unbeknownst to Gi-hun, his second time in the games has seen him make an ally of black-masked villain In-ho, known as The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who himself won the games years before.
In the finale, In-ho– who Gi-hun knows as Young-il AKA Player 001 – fakes his own death before returning to his position behind-the-scenes.
When Gi-hun and his friend and fellow player Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) surrender after running out of ammo, In-ho, donning his black mask once again, executes the latter.
Dong-hyuk decided to end the season there when he realised the show needed more episodes to reach its conclusion, but told Entertainment Weekly: “Of course, those watching would feel like, ‘Oh, no. What’s going to happen next? Give us the next episode right now.’
“But I think that because, at that moment, Gi-hun loses everything, he fails all of his attempts [to stop the games], that is when he goes through yet another character transition. So I thought that was the best place to end the season.“
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Jung-jae admitted that his “first reaction was: ‘How could you end the season at that point?’”, adding: “I think the audience would be dying to know what’s going to happen next and some may be very angry, actually.
“Some may even curse that it’s ending on such a cliffhanger. But I realised that a lot of people nowadays actually love bold cliffhangers.”
Squid Game is available to stream on Netflix.
