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26th June 2025
05:01pm BST
Netflix's smash-hit series Squid Game is back for its third and final season this week, and, ahead of its release, JOE spoke to its cast and crew about their experiences making the thriller.
For those who have been living under a rock, the South Korean show follows a group of people in debt, including our everyman hero Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who are invited to play a mysterious, secret game to win a lot of money.
Taken to an unknown location, these players soon come to discover that to win the cash, they will have to play dark variations on children's games. And if they lose, they die.
Squid Game season 1 dropped on Netflix in 2021, with little fanfare ahead of its release. Thanks to its instantly iconic visuals, its nail-bitingly tense set-pieces and its heavy dose of societal allegory, it quickly became a word-of-mouth hit, eventually racking up a record 265,200,000 views on the streaming giant.
Seasons two and three were then greenlit and shot back-to-back. S2 was released in December 2024 (garnering 192,600,000 more views in the process), while S3 is out on Friday, 27 June.
When speaking to Hwang Dong-hyuk - the creator, writer and director for all of Squid Game - JOE asked him what ideas and themes he was most excited to explore when he learned Netflix wanted more episodes of the series.
It turns out the filmmaker was most interested in the electoral aspect of seasons 2 and 3. Fans of the show will remember that the second season introduced a new rule to the deadly games: all players can leave the competition after each game and split the prize money. To do this, however, more than half must vote to go.
As it turns out, the villainous game master, dubbed the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), knew this would not happen. After all, the more players who die, the more money each remaining person gets. Plus, the participants are in so much debt that the potential rewards of continuing on are too great.
Tipping the scale even further was the Front Man going undercover in the games as a player, pulling the strings from within.
Director Hwang told JOE: "In season 1, the concentration was on the themes of how the current capitalist society has no mercy for the losers of its system and its competition, the lack of welfare systems for them, and the worsening social inequalities.
"And in seasons 2 and 3, I wanted to really bring forth the system or the method of elections. And how all around the world, the election, which should be the core or the heart of democracy, really is creating a greater divide in society, leading to worsened hatred and division.
"So, I wanted seasons 2 and 3 to serve as an opportunity to think again and reflect on how effective the elective system is."
Squid Game actress Park Gyu-young is also quick to point out how the heightened world of Squid Game reflects the real one, stating: "I think this series gives some room for imagination from the viewers to question themselves.
"Am I pessimistic or optimistic toward the world? Will I choose money or friends?"
Park plays No-eul in Squid Game seasons 2 and 3, a former soldier in North Korea who has defected to the South and has fallen on hard times. As such, she gets a job working as one of the murderous guards for the games, but eventually turns against her masters.
Speaking about the character, the actress calls her complex, stating: "No-eul is a character who is not evil and who is not an angel, who is not bad and who is not good. She just moves by the motivation in her heart and her strong ego... even though her circumstances are so harsh."
No-eul's plotline in seasons 2 and 3 plays out alongside that of Gi-hun's. He survived the games of the first season but has returned to the competition two years later in a bid to stop it for good.
However, his planned rebellion in the S2 finale failed (on account of the undercover Front Man), leaving many dead.
As such, the six-part season 3 begins with Gi-Hun at his lowest. Feeling such intense guilt, sadness and anger, he can barely speak.
On the challenge of conveying everything going through Gi-hun's head in very few words, Lee Jung-jae told JOE:
"Gi-hun in season 1 and Gi-hun in season 3 are very different people.
"I really miss the clumsy and fun Gi-hun in season 1 because in season 1, I had a lot of freedom in portraying this character.
"In season 2 and in season 3, with little words, it was very confining as an actor to portray the thoughts that were going inside his mind. It was quite challenging.
"But thanks to director Hwang, who gave me ample time to ponder it and a lot of advice, I think I could pull it off."
Lee Byung-hun, who plays the villainous Front Man aka In-ho, also promises that "the duel" between his character and the hero Gi-hun "begins in earnest" in season 3.
In-ho appeared to form a bond with Gi-Hun while going undercover in the games in S2. This was despite consistently lying to Gi-hun and ultimately betraying him.
On the characters' complicated relationship, Lee Byung-hun told JOE:
"Behind his mask, I think Front Man/In-ho feels a little bit of envy in the beginning towards Gi-hun because he could hold onto this conviction, this very idealistic conviction of having hope in people, which he could not do himself.
"And later on, he maybe sees a glimpse of hope in Gi-Hun and hopes in a corner of his heart that actually Gi-hun is right and he is wrong."
One thing is for sure: not everyone is going to survive to the end credits on the Squid Game finale, as is typical for the show.
Director Hwang told JOE that while he enjoys writing death scenes, he does find them difficult to film.
He explained: "When I'm writing the deaths or the elimination of these characters, I have a lot of fun with it because I like to betray the audience's trust and give them this twist of events.
"But when I'm actually shooting those scenes, you already have that accumulated time spent with the actor and the characters, so I grow very fond of the character.
"It's always sad to see them go. I would sometimes think: 'Oh, maybe I killed this character too early in the show. Maybe I should have made this character live a little bit longer.' I sometimes feel a sense of regret, even."
The news of this iteration of Squid Game ending (Hwang has not ruled out spin-offs in the future) is sure to come as a blow to many fans. After all, this is the type of fanbase which regularly produces reaction videos to the show's most shocking moments.
Recalling viewing some of these, series actress Park told JOE: "I watched some YouTube reactions, watching the twist scenes and watching me eliminating the players.
"I really enjoyed watching those reactions because I never knew that there were reaction videos on YouTube.
"They were all foreigners. They were not Korean. I was really surprised that so many people around the world are commenting something about my character."
While these fans may be disappointed that Squid Game is coming to a close, star Lee Jung-jae believes the series finale "really exceeds all expectations".
"I'm very curious when season 3 drops, how fans will react to the finale of the show, whether they'll be shocked or whether they'll be satisfied," he adds.
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