Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae has a wild idea for season 2

Spoilers for Squid Game’s season 1 ending follow.

Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae has dropped a few new hints about what fans could expect from the plot of Squid Game season 2.

Speaking after his winning Best Actor at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, Jung-Jae revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he has a bold idea to resurrect certain fan-favorite characters from the show’s widely popular first season. 

“My idea is that maybe the masked men took all of [the dead characters away] and made sure they came back to life,” he told reporters on the red carpet. Could that mean we may see the likes of Sae-byeok and Ali return in future Squid Game episodes? It’s certainly a possibility. 

Jung-Jae’s suggestion prompted excited applause from co-stars Kim Joo-ryeong and Anupam Tripathi, whose characters, Mi-nyeo and Ali, evidently stand to gain the most from the potential plot twist. Check out their reactions in the video below (at the 6:22 mark).

Interestingly, though, fellow actor HoYeon Jung (who also took home a SAG award for her performance in the show) didn’t seem to share in the enthusiasm about seeing her character, Sae-byeok, resurrected in Squid Game season 2. She has previously expressed her ambivalence towards the idea, mind, having told Vanity Fair in a theory-debunking video feature that she was “quite happy” Sae-byeok died so she could “get rid of [the] stress.” 

New episodes of the hit Netflix show have been officially confirmed by Netflix, but so far no concrete details have emerged surrounding the series’ cast or plot. The biggest question to come from Squid Game’s season 1 ending concerns whether or not we’ll see more of the show’s titular games in future seasons – but Jung-Jae has weighed in on that aspect, too. 

Speaking to E! on the SAG awards red carpet, the actor responded to questions about Squid Game season 2 by saying: “I hope that [Gi-hun] is definitely going to win [the games] again to do something good.”

That suggests that Gi-hun will be returning to the mysterious island (and competing in its deadly puzzles) in new episodes, presumably in an effort to uncover the truth behind their design. In any case, it’s a narrative thread that aligns with information already revealed by series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.

Let the games begin (again) 

Given the show’s final shot, which sees Gi-hun walk away from a US-bound plane to confront the mysterious voice at the end of the receiver, we’re encouraged to believe that the supposedly pacifistic character now has a vendetta against the game’s organizers.

We know Gi-hun will definitely be back in season 2 – showrunner Hwang told The Associated Press in November last year that Gi-hun will return to “do something for the world” – so competing in further games makes narrative sense, at least. 

But both Netflix and Hwang are currently “trying to figure out the right structure" (via Vulture) for new episodes, meaning Squid Game season 2 could subvert our expectations entirely. 

Other possible plot threads to explore include the fate of Jun-hon, the undercover cop who discovers the Front Man to be his brother, In-ho, as well as the mystery surrounding the games' recruiter. Hwang has expressed an interest in both ideas, but neither narrative avenue has been confirmed just yet. 

In all likelihood, Squid Game season 2 will combine all three of these aforementioned storylines, with the resurrection of those fan-favorite characters the only unlikely proposition (though, as we’ve said, it’s certainly a possibility). 

In any case, stay tuned to our Squid Game season 2 hub for all the latest on the future of Netflix’s biggest ever show. 

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