In a new season that has taken the internet by storm, the Korean thriller series Squid Games released Season 2 on December 26, 2024. Fans have expressed excitement and feelings about the show on social media. In Season 2, we welcome back some of last year’s cast, like actor Lee Jung-jae, who plays the show’s main character, Seong Gi-hun, Lee Byung-hun, playing the Frontman Hwang In-ho/ Young-il in Season 2, and Wi Ha-joon who plays fans favorite detective Hwang Jun-ho.
With the returning cast, we also welcome new faces to the show, such as actor Kang Ae-si,m who plays the beloved mother, Jang Geum-ja, and her son Bak Young-si,k played by Yang Dong-geun. Other new faces in the show are iconic fan-favorite Cho Hyun-ju, played by actor Park Sung-hoon, and loyal friend Bak Jeong-bae, played by Lee Seo-hwan. To top off the new cast lineup, we have ex K-pop Idols Jo Yuri from IZ*ONE, who plays Kim Jun-Hee, and T.O.P (Choi Seung-hyun) from BigBang, who plays Thanos.
What is Squid Games?
Squid Games is based in modern-day Korea, where many people are in debt for various reasons. Whether that is due to gambling or bills to pay off, lots of these people are in debt over millions of won. Every few years, a survival game called the “Squid Game” invites exactly 456 players in debt to partake in childhood games. Some are universal, like the starting game “Red Light, Green Light” or “Tug of War,” while others are solely based in Korea.
Examples of Korean games are “Ddakji,” where you take one folded paper and try to flip another folded paper onto the opposite side, and “Dalgona,” which is a sugary caramel cookie, where you have to cut the shape out of the middle without breaking it, and “Squid Game,” an offense and defense game where players must make it to the top of the squid head to be ruled champion. Still, in the survival game reference, the last one alive is crowned victorious.
While these games are in Season 1 of the show, Season 2 introduces us to new games such as “Gonggi,” “Jeji,” and “Mingle.” In Season 2, we see one of the most popular games comeback, “Ddajki” and “Red Light, Green Light.” The following 2 new games we see are a “six-legged pentathlon,” where the ankle ties together five players, and they must play Korean childhood games to pass to the next mini-game, and “Mingle,” where players must get into specific numbers of teams, and sprint to an open room. If players do not make it to the room or the finish line or have enough, they will be eliminated and killed from the game.
How squid games have taken the internet yet again
Season One of Squid Games was released on September 17, 2021, and the internet went wild. People worldwide started playing games like “Red Light, Green Light” or tried making Dalgona, which was either a big hit or a big fail. Even Mr.Beast made an IRL Squid Games without the deaths. People also made videos all about the characters, and one fan-favorite was Kang Sae-byeok, played by Jung Hyo-yeon. Her good looks later led fans to find out she was a runway model on top of being an actress.
With the new cast, fans were excited to see their favorite K-pop idols on the show, but that wasn’t the only reason fans were addicted to it. One popular reason was the English voiceovers for the show. Clips of Gi-hun saying with the English dub, “I’ve played these games before,” have become a meme on all platforms. Mini-games have also become popular, where people have been playing “Mingle” and “Red Light, Green Light” on games like Fortnite and Roblox, where clips of people trying to recreate clips from the show are in English and Korean.
TikTok has also enormously contributed to the popularity of Squid Games Season 2, where fans have made edits and artwork for the characters. Some popular characters that have been booming are Thanos and his rapping, and even with little screentime, the Salesman, with his good looks, has fans head over heels for him. Videos of him were so popular that Gong Yoo, the actor of the Salemans, made a TikTok account and used one of the audios from the edits. Fans have also been in love with Gi-hun and Young-il’s friendship throughout the show, where Lee Byung-hun has also created a TikTok account.
With the 3-year gap between season 1 and season 2, It has been confirmed that season 3 will also be coming out this year around June. After the major cliffhanger at the end of the season, fans are eager to watch the next season coming up. Will there be a new cast or new games? Be sure to catch up and prepare for Season 3 of Squid Games.
