Squid Game: The Netflix show adding murder to playground nostalgia

[street cricketer]

One another thing is that the deaths of all the main characters seem to have been foreshadowed.

Spoilers ahead

For example, the mafia guy above jumps off the bridge to escape from the Filipino mobsters and he dies in a similar fashion in the game. The lady who dies with him says to the mafia guy that she'll kill him if he ever betrays her and that happened. The North Korean girl threatens to slit the throat of an immigration agent and that happens. The Pakistani guy runs away after forcefully grabbing the money he's owed from the factory he worked and there's an analogy in his end. And Sang woo tries to kill himself in the bath tub in his hotel room because of the debts he owes and something similar happens later.

 

[Stewie]

Finished it over the weekend. Wonderful show. I am sure the second season will be quite as entertaining.

Koreans have always made wonderful films/tv shows. I am Huge fan of Korean cinema

 

[Saj]

Squid Game will return for a second series, according to its creator and director.

The dystopian South Korean show was a huge hit - becoming streaming platform Netflix's largest ever launch.

More than 100 million people watched the programme in the first month.

Most shows in South Korea run for only a single series, but Hwang Dong-hyuk has said that due to the reaction, "I almost feel like you leave us no choice".

Mr Hwang said: "There's been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season.

"It's in my head right now. I'm in the planning process currently. But I do think it's too early to say when and how that's going to happen.

"So I will promise you this, Gi-hun will be back and he'll do something for the world."

 

[Sirris]

LooooooL

I found the series to be overhyped. It was okayish. Will watch season 2 though.

 

[Kroll]

I think they really stereotyped the Pakistani guy . Too dumb for his own good.

Yep he was too nice. That marbles episode was really a punch to the gut lol

He looked more like an Indian guy.

Exactly, played by an Indian actor so I guess he just cut loose in a mocking way.

Foreign production companies need to stop casting Indians as Pakistanis cos it nearly always in a stereotyped or negative way which the Indians are always happy to oblige.

 

[MenInG]

Squid Game appears close to being confirmed for two more seasons after the hit show's creator said talks with Netflix will conclude "any time soon".

The dystopian drama broke records when it debuted in September and was watched by 111 million users in its first 28 days.

Many fans were left yearning for more and it now appears a follow-up to the nine episodes is close to being agreed.

According to The Korea Times, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk said: "I'm in talks with Netflix over season two as well as season three. We will come to a conclusion any time soon."

The show made overnight stars of its actors, including Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-jun and HoYeon Jung, and also inspired numerous Halloween costumes.

Squid Game tells the tale of people down on their luck who are taken to a secret island to compete in deadly versions of children's games as they try to win a huge jackpot.

Speaking in November, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk said the reaction to the South Korean hit almost gave him "no choice" but to do a sequel.

He said: "There's been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season.

"It's in my head right now. I'm in the planning process currently. But I do think it's too early to say when and how that's going to happen.

"So I will promise you this, Gi-hun will be back and he'll do something for the world."

SKY

 

[MenInG]

Squid Game - the dystopian drama and global megahit - is to return for a second season, Netflix has confirmed.

The series became the streaming giant's most-watched show when it was launched last September with more than 100 million viewers in the first month.

The show tells the story of cash-strapped contestants who play childhood games for a chance of life-changing sums of money.

Set in South Korea, contestants have to beat 455 other people to win the money while playing children's games such as Red Light, Green Light - but the catch is if you lose, you die.

Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk teased a few details about the show's second season in a letter released by Netflix.

He said characters Gi-hun and The Front Man will return and "the man in the suit with ddakji might be back".

"You'll also be introduced to Young-hee's boyfriend," he added.

Young-hee is a motion-sensing animatronic doll featured in one of the games.

The director said at the end of last year that he was "in the planning process" for a second season.

Netflix has not revealed when the new season will be released.

The announcement comes as Netflix viewers continue to enjoy the first part of the fourth series of Stranger Things, which was recently released.

In its first two weeks, more than 620 million hours of the new season had been viewed. Volume two is due to be released in July.

SKY

 

[Saj]

Tough act to follow the first series which was brilliant.

Quite often follow up series are poor, let's see.

 

[James]

<b>Squid Game coming to life with 456 real players competing for last-person-standing £3.7m prize</b>

<I>The reality TV game will have the largest cast and largest lump sum cash prize in broadcasting history.</I>

Squid Game is coming to life - with 456 real players being given the chance to compete for a £3.7m prize.

The dystopian Korean drama became Netflix's "biggest TV show ever" after being released last year.

It followed 456 players, all of whom were in deep financial hardship, risking their lives to play a series of deadly children's games.

The show, in Korean, showed brutal scenes of desperate people fighting to the death to be the final player standing and take the cash.

The new reality show challenge will not be competing to the death, however!

Contestants will go through a series of games inspired by the original show, but the toughest limits will be testing their strategies, alliances and character, as others are eliminated around them.

Netflix said: "The stakes are high, but in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed."

The 10-episode competition series is being made jointly by producers behind social media reality show The Circle and award-winning documentary series 24 Hours in A&E.

It will have both the largest cast and biggest lump sum cash prize in reality TV history.

Brandon Riegg, vice president of Netflix Unscripted and Documentary Series, said: "Squid Game took the world by storm with Director Hwang's captivating story and iconic imagery.

"We're grateful for his support as we turn the fictional world into reality in this massive competition and social experiment.

"Fans of the drama series are in for a fascinating and unpredictable journey as our 456 real-world contestants navigate the biggest competition series ever, full of tension and twists, with the biggest ever cash prize at the end."

Squid Game was a hugely popular children's game in Korea in the 70s and 80s, around the time when the show's director was growing up in Seoul.

In the game, kids were divided into attack and defence and played inside a Squid-shaped board drawn on the ground.

In June, Netflix confirmed that season two of the drama series version of the show had been commissioned.

https://news.sky.com/story/squid-ga...g-for-last-person-standing-37m-prize-12634006

 

[gazza619]

Do we have a date of release?

 

[Firebat]

Great show but overrated for the cult following it got IMO. It was a creative idea that grabbed everyone's attention, but the acting was annoyingly OTT and they didn't stick the landing. Cool concept definitely.

 

[MenInG]

Squid Game actor O Yeong-su has been charged with sexual misconduct, South Korean judicial officials say.

The 78-year-old is accused of touching a woman inappropriately in 2017, officials said.

Mr O has denied the allegation, local media report.

He became the first South Korean actor to win a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor in a series after his performance in the chart-topping Netflix thriller earlier this year.

The alleged victim first filed a complaint with the police against Mr O in December last year, according to Yonhap news agency. But the case was closed in April without a charge being brought against Mr O.

The prosecution has now reopened the investigation "at the request of the victim", the agency reports.

Mr O has now been charged without detention, it adds.

Following the charge, Seoul's culture ministry decided to stop broadcasting a government commercial featuring Mr O, according to local reports cited by AFP news agency.

Squid Game - Netflix's most popular series of all time - is a thriller series which tells the story of debt-ridden people competing for a huge cash prize in a deadly series of children's games.

Mr O plays the oldest participant in the survival competition.

BBC

 

[MenInG]

According to industry insider Jeff Sneider of The Hot Mic podcast, Netflix is reportedly developing an American remake of the hit South Korean drama Squid Game and is interested in having David Fincher helm the project.

Fincher, who has directed acclaimed films such as Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, and The Social Network, has worked on several Netflix series, including House of Cards, Mindhunter, and Love, Death & Robots.

According to CBR, Sneider noted, "Netflix is courting David Fincher to produce and direct an American take on Squid Game." Sneider clarified that he has no idea if Fincher is actually engaging with frequent collaborator Netflix on the matter. However, multiple sources have claimed that the streaming giant "badly" wants Fincher to direct the project badly.

Squid Game, which premiered in September 2021, became an overnight sensation, with the nine-episode first season amassing 1.65 billion viewing hours in just four weeks and claiming the title of the most-watched Netflix series of all time. The show was also widely praised by critics and audiences alike.

Assuming the information from Sneider is correct, it is not surprising that Netflix would want to capitalise on the massive success of Squid Game with an American remake.

Fincher's involvement in the project would be a major win for Netflix given his track record of directing critically acclaimed and commercially successful films and TV shows. Fincher's next film, The Killer, is also set to premiere exclusively on Netflix in November 2022.

Express Tribune

 

[MenInG]

When John heard that Netflix was making a reality show version of the streamer’s hit drama “Squid Game,” he was all in. His love of the original series resonated with casting agents and, to his amazement, he was tapped as one of 456 contestants playing the U.K.-filmed game. As far as John was concerned, that eye-watering $4.56 million cash prize — the biggest ever in reality history — had his name on it.

“I thought I was going to win it, because I’m so competitive,” says John, whose real name has been changed to protect his identity. “When it comes to these sorts of games, I’m good at them. They’re games of chance, luck and wit. I live for that sort of thing.”

But on day one of production, John “died” playing the very first challenge.

The British native was among roughly 228 contestants immediately eliminated from “Squid Game: The Challenge” on Jan. 23 in a game of “Red Light Green Light” that will go down in the annals of reality TV history.

Certainly, the incident provided a memorable front page for British tabloid The Sun, whose Jan. 25 splash read “Squid Game Horror in UK.” The story described how contestants on the reality show — produced by Studio Lambert, the same company behind the massive hit “The Traitors,” and The Garden — had been left freezing in a cavernous airplane hanger in Bedford, playing a seemingly interminable game where they had to hold statue-like poses for almost 30 minutes. On-set medics had been called repeatedly to a scene that one contestant described as a “warzone” played out in frigid temperatures.

The story had a hyperbolic — even comedic — edge. Didn’t these players realize they were signing up to a reality show based on one of the most sinister, bloody survival dramas ever made? Weren’t they aware of the long hours involved in any kind of TV production?

Netflix was quick to kibosh tabloid reports of a contestant being stretchered out, publicly playing down the incident. In a Jan. 25 statement, the streamer said it cared “deeply” about the health and safety of the cast and crew. Yes, it was very cold on set, Netflix admitted, but “participants were prepared for that.”

In a new statement on Friday, shortly after this story was published, the streamer and producers Studio Lambert and The Garden stood firm that all precautions had been taken: “We care deeply about the health of our cast and crew, and the quality of this show. Any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue. We’ve taken all the appropriate safety precautions, including after care for contestants – and an independent adjudicator is overseeing each game to ensure it’s fair to everyone.”


Yet contestants such as John and two others who spoke to Variety on the condition of anonymity (their real names have been changed in this story as they signed non-disclosure agreements) say they never signed up for the physical ordeal they went through.


Contestants — who weren’t paid to participate in the series — say they were told the actual game would take roughly two hours to play and shoot, but instead that turned into an almost seven-hour ordeal for some contenders. All of this was carried out in an unforgiving U.K. cold snap that saw temperatures drop to zero degrees Celsius in Bedford on the day of filming. A number of contestants collapsed on set — likely due to a combination of cold and fatigue from the eight hours of prep time before the game even started.

“This is not a Bear Grylls survival show,” says John. “If they had told us it was going to be that cold, no one would have gone through with it.”

Another U.K. player, Marlene, says that what transpired is “not as extreme as people are saying” — she did not see anyone stretchered away, for example — “but it’s definitely not as minimal as is being conveyed by Netflix.”

“It’s not like we signed up for ‘Survivor’ or ‘Naked and Afraid,’” she says. “The conditions were absolutely inhumane and had nothing to do with the game.”

The players’ experiences reflect the high stakes involved for reality television in the streaming age. “Squid Game: The Challenge,” produced for the world’s biggest streaming service, involves the biggest group of contestants to ever take part in a reality show, and the biggest cash prize ever offered. But is bigger always better when it comes to the welfare of participants?

On day one of production, contestants received hotel wake-up calls as early as 3:30 a.m. With firm instructions not to interact with other players, they were driven in buses to Bedford’s Cardington Studios, a former Royal Air Force hanger two hours’ drive north of London, where they were grouped off in tents and miked up. The “Squid Game” track suit they wore is exactly the one seen in the drama — teal and cream in color, chunky and comfortable, but hardly your go-to outfit to brave the elements.

At this point, players were allowed to wear their coats on top, which producers had specifically asked them to pack for the show given Britain’s cold winters. They were also given hand and foot warmers, and two pairs of thermal underwear and socks, which they could wear for the whole day. A few portable heaters purred in the tents, throwing off just enough heat for those standing nearby.

As smartphones had been confiscated the day before, contestants couldn’t be sure what time the game actually kicked off, but by most estimates it was around 1 or 2 p.m., following a lunch break. There was some grumbling when it was revealed the challenge would take around two hours to complete, with poses to be held for two minutes at a time, but no one balked. Players had had to provide sign-off from their doctor in order to be cast on the show. This was “Squid Game,” after all: It was going to be rigorous.

But as the game got underway, the atmosphere changed. Coats were taken away; hand and foot warmers were scooped out of pockets and plimsolls; and the players’ jackets had to remain unzipped in order to display their numbers as well as the fake blood that would squirt from devices strapped to their chests if they were eliminated. When the show’s giant killer doll stopped singing, they had to freeze in position — but what began as the promised two-minute wait was quickly bumped up to 10 and then 15 minutes. Marlene says she counted a 26-minute wait during one round. (Sources close to the production say the wait time increased to allow independent adjudicators to assess the gameplay.)

“The second time the song played, I saw in my left peripheral vision that this girl was swaying. Then she just buckled, and you could hear her head actually hit the ground,” says Marlene. “But then someone came on the [microphone] and said to hold our positions because the game is not paused. After that, people were dropping like flies.” Marlene estimates that around four people fainted. (Netflix has said that three people required medical attention.)

After medics were called for the “eleventh” time, estimates Marlene, “they started giving us relaxation breaks. They said, ‘Don’t move your feet, but if you want to bend your knees, and move your arms around, you can.’”

Jenny, a player from outside the U.K. who had been flown in for the game, tells Variety: “I’m infuriated by the narrative that Netflix is putting out there, that only [a few] people were injured…we were all injured just by going through that experience.

“I’ve never been that cold for that long a period in my life. We couldn’t feel our feet or our toes. It was ridiculous,” she says. Jenny also claims that while the game was in production, restroom or water breaks weren’t allowed.

“Take some responsibility for the fact that you were ill-prepared for this kind of thing, with this number of people,” continues Jenny, between tears. “There were some things I guess [producers] didn’t think about, but when they saw the weather was going to be that way, they should have made adjustments.”

Sources close to production deny that medics were called eleven times, and have indicated that prohibiting breaks during filming is standard. There has not been any official comment from Netflix on how long players were asked to go without toilet or water breaks.

John says he experienced dizziness and a “banging headache” while playing the game: “This game was no longer fun or respectable to those of a certain age. It went beyond being a game,” he says. “But I thought, ‘You know what? It’s $4.56 million. I can do this.’”

Until he couldn’t.

“Imagine you’re playing ‘Red Light Green Light’ for six hours. What game is that? This isn’t a game. The fun is now gone. You can’t tell people they have to stand in below freezing temperatures in just a tracksuit and two pairs of socks. Come on.”

All three players say they returned to the hotel between 7 p.m. and midnight without having dinner. Dinner orders had been taken at lunch, but because the game had run longer than expected, contestants were transported back to their central London hotel without having eaten. Production had ordered pizzas for those arriving, but there wasn’t enough food to go around, and some people went to bed hungry.


“In the morning, I woke up and there was a cold hamburger from McDonald’s and a side salad in front of my door that had been there for God knows how long,” says Marlene.

Jenny, who was still shaken, managed to have a brief conversation with a junior production assistant, who apologized on behalf of Studio Lambert and suggested that the production had required “far more staff than we have.” (Sources close to the show deny that the production was under-resourced.)

On Tuesday, the players checked out of their hotel, and tried their best to put Monday’s ordeal behind them. They were also given letters that contained contacts for the production — people to call if they had any questions or concerns — though the onus was on them to reach out. Variety has confirmed that producers contacted each of the players in the last week to ask if they had arrived home safely. “But he didn’t ask me how I was doing or anything,” says Jenny. “It seemed off to me because during the casting process, he was so nice.”

When “Squid Game: The Challenge” was announced by Netflix’s then-global TV boss Bela Bajaria (now chief content officer) at the Banff World Media Festival in June 2022, Studio Lambert and The Garden — two top British production companies — were the envy of the U.K. industry. While it’s unusual to have two similar producers on the one show, sources indicate that the two outfits had independently conceived of the idea, and that Netflix likely thought their strengths —Studio Lambert with its flashy entertainment know-how à la “The Circle” and “Race Across the World”; The Garden with a strong factual foundation from shows like “24 Hours in A&E” — would complement each other.

But inherent to the commission, notes one unscripted producer, is the tension that people actually die in the drama, “so everyone will be looking at how far you’ll push the contributors. If people don’t die, will it ever come close? That could be incredibly successful, or it could easily go wrong.”

Making the production infinitely more complex is its sheer size. Managing 456 contestants is a tall order for even the best reality producers in the world, even if it was only technically for one day. (After day one, just 228 players moved forward, though even that is a heart-stopping figure.) Another senior unscripted executive working across international reality formats tells Variety that looking after the welfare of 456 people “sounds like a complete nightmare,” primarily because of the amount of care required and the logistics necessary to feed, house and transport people.

“It sounds silly, but often, people haven’t necessarily travelled or left their home country before, so you’re dealing with the widest range of skills and experience. You’ve got to assume that you’re holding their hand every step of the way,” says the executive.

The biggest effect on contestants, on any reality show, is exhaustion, they continue. Sometimes, that’s deliberate, and other times, it’s not.


“But when it’s not, TV shoots are really long days. You’re getting your contestants out very early because you want to film when you have light, and if you’re filming in the winter in the U.K., Jesus, [the producers are] all Patagonia’d and North Face’d up to our eyeballs, but I don’t imagine the wardrobe departments have super insulated costumes for all the contestants, so [a production] could really easily get away from you. It sounds like this got completely out of control.”


The executive adds, however, that it is “totally incumbent” on a production company to cancel a shoot in adverse conditions. “And I’ve had those conversations,” they add. “Someone calls and goes, ‘We’ve got a problem,’ and you’ve just got to suck it up and it’s going to cost you £250,000 to £500,000. But the line was always, we’re a big company, we can do that. And certainly, [Netflix] can.”

“The thing is,” the source notes after a pause, “‘Squid Game’ isn’t about physical endurance, is it? It isn’t about hardship. It’s about games.”

The other senior producer source adds: “It feels like a misstep on the part of the producers. I read about it and thought, ‘Did you really do that?’ This was heralded as Netflix’s massive commission — their ‘no one else would do this’ commission, so you’d think there would be some money to consider the basics of production, [to say] ‘If we do it in a hanger in winter, it will be cold and what are the provisions?’”

Philippa Childs, boss of U.K. production union Bectu, says the organization has not received any feedback or complaints from crew involved on the production. She observes, however, that there could be a disconnect between the pressures on delivery placed by streamers versus what’s expected from local broadcasters. Studio Lambert is, after all, the same company that produced “The Traitors” for the BBC, a show that began with 20 contestants and had “very stringent health and safety and support for contestants,” says Childs. With Netflix, and for such a large-scale production, perhaps the demands were on an entirely new level.

“Streamers don’t necessarily have a good, rounded expectation of health and safety,” says Childs. “I think there is that arrogance about some of the streamers.”

Meanwhile, the belief that reality contestants should have known what they’re signing up for, argues Childs, is an “exploitative” and unfair expectation. “Of course, contestants can go into reality shows wanting their 15 minutes of fame,” she says. “But it is a workplace, and normal health and safety standards should be expected. Contestants should be supported.”

In fact, all three “Squid Game: The Challenge” contestants who spoke to Variety would tell you that, in fact, they did feel supported. But only up to a certain point.

“The application process was unlike anything I’ve ever done,” says Jenny. “The background checks and psychological checks…they were emailing, calling or texting me every day from October to January. The people I communicated with at Studio Lambert were so kind and supportive. I was thinking, ‘This is gonna be a great experience; these are great folks!’

https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/...lity-show-frozen-inhumane-welfare-1235511809/

 

[FearlessRoar]

Mysterious masked guards in pink boiler suits, a singing giant doll and a life-changing sum of money... it can only mean the return of Squid Game.

The Netflix hit has come back to our screens, but this time with a reality game show spin-off seeing 456 real players battle it out for a $4.56m (£3.66m) prize fund - one of the biggest cash prizes in TV history.

The gigantic set is the first thing that hits you about Squid Game: The Challenge, before the show kicks off with hundreds of hopefuls in green tracksuits trying to cross a line without being seen to move by a 13.7ft (4.2m) doll furiously swivelling her neck.

"It felt like it was real - it didn't feel like you were in a fictional place," contestant Lorenzo Nobilio, 26, told BBC News.

Only this time it was radio-controlled exploding dye taking out stumbling players in Red Light, Green Light, and not a fatal bullet on the spot.

Describing it as the physically hardest game on the show, the London-based Italian said: "I made it past the line in seven hours, that was a very long time, but it's called Squid Game: The Challenge, it's not an all-inclusive holiday in the Canary Islands."

Seven hours? Yes, you heard right. With the stakes high, a team of adjudicators - trained lawyers - had been examining footage frame by frame to spot who needed to be kicked out.

The show made headlines earlier this year, when people received medical treatment during filming and contestants complained about the cold conditions amid freezing UK weather.

"It was no worse than many unscripted shows, if you look at Survivor or SAS: Who Dares Wins," claimed executive producer Stephen Lambert of Studio Lambert, the production company also behind hit game show The Traitors.

"When you are giving away a huge prize, it was always clear it was going to be a tough show to take part in."

That huge prize attracted applications from 81,000 people from around the globe, before they were whittled down to 456 seemingly normal people - unlike fellow Netflix reality competition show Physical: 100, which gathered a hundred South Korean competitors at peak fitness, including national athletes and bodybuilders.

Squid Game: The Challenge players - mostly American - ranged from a mother and son duo to the oldest at the age of 69. The ones highlighted in the very long series with interviews are mostly people you can warm to, that's if they're not being suddenly eliminated from the show.

"We were interested in the games as a test of human nature, so we wanted the widest possible variety of people," explained one of the show's other executive producers, John Hay from production company The Garden.

When not playing original games from the series like intricately cutting out umbrella-shaped honeycomb wafers with a needle and new games like battleships, contestants were fully immersed in the Squid Game universe.

No phones, confined to a prison-style dormitory, sleeping on five-bed-high bunk beds, and surviving on rationed food served by those menacing guards.

"My strategy was if I keep well fed [by hiding second helpings under his duvet] , I'll actually be stronger than the others and maybe win," Nobilio said, who worked in private equity before joining the show.

The Big Brother-like living space also provided ample time for alliances to form. And in a new addition, players are also given chances to eliminate others, as part of the producers' aim to create drama and reveal players' characters between games.
Between games, players were confined to a windowless dormitory, where they slept in bunk beds.

But what about the criticism from some Squid Game fans - who are mostly waiting for the second season of the drama confirmed last year - that a real life version flies in the face of show's message? The drama's creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had previously said the story "was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society".

In the original drama, Netflix's most watched series, debt-ridden South Korean contestants compete in a series of children's games for a huge cash prize won only by the last surviving player.

Executive producer Hay points out that this show is flipped so it's driven by opportunity rather than need.

"We are giving them the most enormous opportunity and it turns out that's as strong as a motivation and story."

A point lost on critics, who all flagged the contradiction, but have mostly given the show the thumbs up.

The Guardian called it the most gripping reality TV since The Traitors, giving it a four-star review. Also giving it four stars, the Radio Times concluded that it was "more intense than the hit show".

Meanwhile, the Evening Standard preferred to call it a "shoddy knock-off", awarding it just two stars. The i giving it one star called it a "cynical attempt to regenerate the viewing figures Squid Game earned".

Producers are waiting to see if it indeed does win over audiences.

"It's amazing to make something which comes off the back of a show as popular as Squid Game," Hay adds. "That's the ultimate in head starts."

Source: BBC

Squid Game The Challenge: It felt like it was real, says contestant

The hit TV drama is reinvented as a game show as real players battle it out for a $4.56m prize.

www.bbc.com

 

[Saj]

I watched the 5 episodes on Netflix of the reality game show.

I thought it was ok for fans of the series.

Some awful people in it, but I'll be watching the upcoming episodes.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Squid Game to End with Season 3 on Netflix as streamer sets Season 2 premiere

Nearly three years after Squid Game took the world by storm on Netflix, the show has revealed when the next two seasons will be released, with a much shorter wait.

Netflix announced on Wednesday that Season 2 will debut on Thursday, December 26, and also that the third and final season will arrive in 2025.

The first season launched in mid-September 2021 and became a global sensation, along with Netflix's biggest show in the streamer's history.

The show has amassed over 1.65 billion global viewing hours in the first 28 days and became the first show ever to have been watched by over 100 million Netflix accounts (111 million) in that time frame, and also spawned the reality competition series Squid Game: The Challenge.

The trailer shows a number of track and field competitors lining up at the blocks for a race, which begins with the firing of the starter pistol.

The competitors all take off running... but soon they're overcome by the familiar green jumpsuits of the Squid Game competitors.

The racers fall back as some of the Squid Game competitors fall to the ground while others keep running before we see a small podium with the mysterious character known only as Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who oversees Squid Game.

While the competitors keep running chaotically, Front Man - flanked on each side by four of his pink-suited cronies in the trailer.

Front Man says in Korean, 'It's been three years. Do you want to play again?' with the trailer ending with the release date announcement.

The series follows a secret contest where 456 people in dire financial straits are brought to play a game that could make them incredibly wealthy.

They soon find out how deadly the game really is, with familiar Korean childhood games given deadly twists, with each death contributing to the growing pool... with the last person standing to win it tall.

The first season centered on divorced gambling addict Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who tries to turn things around to make life better for his daughter.

He ultimately comes out victorious, but emerges traumatized from everything he's seen and done, and vowed to find those running the game at the end of Season 1.

Lee Jung-jae will return alongside Lee Byung-hun as Front Man, Gong Yoo as The Recruiter (who lured Gi-hun in with a game of Ddakji) and Wi Ha-joon as Detective Hwang Jun-ho for Season 2.

Jun-ho was shot by Front Man - who turned out to be his long-missing brother - at the end of Season 1, and he fell off a cliff, leaving his fate uncertain, though it seems he somehow survived that fall.

Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk - who wrote and directed all 10 episodes - also shared a letter to the fans in a Netflix press release.

'It's been almost three years since Season 1 was met with incredible response around the world and many unimaginable events took place. I am beyond excited to be writing this letter to announce the date for Season 2 and share the news of Season 3, the final season,' he began.

'On the first day we began shooting Season 2, I remember thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I'm back in the world of Squid Game." It almost felt surreal. I wonder how it will feel for you to be back in Squid Game after three years, as well,' he added.

'Seong Gi-hun who vowed revenge at the end of Season 1 returns and joins the game again. Will he succeed in getting his revenge? Front Man doesn't seem to be an easy opponent this time either. The fierce clash between their two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3, which will be brought to you next year,' he continued.

'I am thrilled to see the seed that was planted in creating a new Squid Game grow and bear fruit through the end of this story,' Dong-hyuk added.

'We'll do our best to make sure we bring you yet another thrill ride. I hope you're excited for what's to come. Thank you, always, and see you soon, everyone,' he concluded.

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb...ame-ends-Season-3-final-Netflix-premiere.html