\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen season two of Squid Game dropped, fans were split in their response to Netflix\u2019s hit Korean drama. While some viewers loved the dialled-up-to-11 intensity of everything \u2013 more characters, more drama, more staggering brutality \u2013 others found the tone relentlessly bleak. And this was a show whose original concept \u2013 a cabal of rich benefactors recruit poor people to compete in bloodsports for cash \u2013 was already plenty dark. Anyone hoping the show\u2019s third and final season, arriving this week, will provide a reprieve should probably just rewatch Emily in Paris instead.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tone is going to be more dark and bleak,\u201d says series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, through an interpreter. \u201cThe world, as I observe it, has less hope. I wanted to explore questions like, \u2018What is the very last resort of humankind? And do we have the will to give future generations something better?\u2019 After watching all three seasons, I hope we can each ask ourselves, \u2018What kind of humanity do I have left in me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Characters die in creative ways, like being pulled off a ledge in a\u00a0gigantic tug of war game<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lofty ambition for what has become a flagship Netflix show \u2013 one of the defining cultural products of the 2020s, which seemed to hold a mirror up to a new era of desperation and savagery. The first and second seasons set global viewership records for the streamer \u2013 remarkable for a show that\u2019s not in English \u2013 and in 2023, it released Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality show based on the series, which saw contestants competing for a $4.5m prize. All this in spite of the fact that Squid Game is also one of the most extraordinarily violent shows ever aired, featuring all manner of brutal, disturbing death scenes. Watching the show can be a gruelling experience: in nearly every episode, several characters are pushed to their limits before being unceremoniously shot by one of the show\u2019s pink-suited guards.<\/p>\n Because of Squid Game\u2019s outsized success, it is surprising the show is ending after only three seasons in four years. By the time its finale airs, Stranger Things, another Netflix hit, will have run for five seasons over nearly a decade. Lee Jung-jae, who plays hapless hero turned vigilante Gi-hun, says Hwang\u2019s vision initially didn\u2019t even allow for a second season. \u201cHe told us Squid Game was a limited series,\u201d he says, also through a interpreter. \u201cBut because it was met with so much love from across the world, he had to do subsequent seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Attention-grabbing \u2026 Park Gyu-young as No-eul.<\/span> Photograph: .\/Netflix<\/p>\n The fact that Squid Game was conceived as a one-and-done hasn\u2019t lessened the show\u2019s impact. After a shocking first season that played up the contrast between the children\u2019s playground aesthetic and the copious amounts of blood and betrayal, season two raised the stakes with complex, attention-grabbing new characters. The purple-haired rapper Thanos, played by the rapper TOP, was a bizarre pill-popper with a proclivity for violence and speaking in a strange version of English, while Park Gyu-young played Kang No-eul, a North Korean defector who becomes a guard.<\/p>\n While he is aware of criticisms of the second season, Lee says there was no opportunity to change season three, given that the two seasons were filmed back to back. And besides, fan response was not the chief consideration. \u201cThe messages of Squid Game are very important,\u201d says Lee. \u201cInstead of \u2018fixing\u2019 the narrative, we just wanted to make sure the message was conveyed. And of course it\u2019s a TV show \u2013 you have to provide entertainment. In season three, we have new games, new characters, twists and turns. It\u2019s going to be very entertaining \u2013 but with a message.\u201d<\/p>\n That message \u2013 about humanity\u2019s capacity for violence, and the danger capitalism puts people in \u2013 has been consistent throughout, but in season three, ideas of vengeance and retribution are given a lot of airtime, and the show leans into moral ambiguity even more. <\/strong>This darkness is at odds, Hwang suggests, with what most viewers are looking for. \u201cPeople like a happy ending,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019m like that too. But some stories, by nature, can\u2019t have one. If you try to force one, the essence is compromised. If a story is holding up a mirror to something, then it\u2019s not always a happy ending. Squid Game is no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n As for whether loyal fans will be satisfied with the ending, Lee remains tight-lipped about what we will see, but is philosophical about its effect. \u201cThe finale was something even I didn\u2019t expect,\u201d he says, \u201cso I\u2019m sure a lot of fans will not see it coming. I think a lot of people will have different reactions. It\u2019s definitely going to spur a lot of conversation. I\u2019m looking forward to listening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n For Lee, making two seasons back-to-back was challenging. \u201cIt was non-stop filming for about a year and two months,\u201d he says. \u201cSo it was draining, physically. But I could really immerse myself in Gi-hun. When I\u2019m stressed out or physically drained, I usually have really good food and that cheers me up. But I was on a diet. There was no way to release the stress!\u201d<\/p>\n Lee is a veteran of the South Korean screen but he finds playing Gi-hun \u2013 who goes from wet-blanket nobody to hardened hero \u2013 endlessly exciting. \u201cGi-hun is constantly pressed,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s very frustrated, because whatever he tries to do is just not working. If someone is pushed to that extent, even a good guy can change. It was intriguing to play a character who goes through so much change.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes the show\u2019s intense brutality \u2013 characters die in horrifying and creatively violent ways, such as falling through glass panels or being pulled off a ledge in a gigantic game of tug of war \u2013 can feel almost desensitising, which Lee says isn\u2019t the intention. \u201cI really hope that people don\u2019t become desensitised,\u201d he says. \u201cAll these characters have very tragic backstories. I hope people will focus on that and mourn their deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n Squid Game\u2019s anticapitalist sentiment is so strong that it is strange to see the number of promotional tie-ins Netflix has set up, with companies ranging from McDonald\u2019s to Uber \u2013 many of which have been accused in the past of putting profits before employee wellbeing. Hwang says that, at the end of the day, Squid Game exists in a capitalist system.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018Fans won\u2019t see it coming\u2019 \u2026 Squid Game season three.<\/span> Photograph: Noh Ju-han\/Netflix<\/p>\n \u201cFor me and Netflix,\u201d he says, \u201cwe started out wanting to create a commercial product. It would be too far a stretch to criticise wanting to profit from something that criticises the capitalist system. No studio is going to want to create a story that\u2019s too critical of society. Having said that, if I felt [the partnerships] were too excessive, to the point where I felt it was damaging the spirit of the show, I might feel differently. But it wouldn\u2019t be right for me to tell Netflix not to do something. I don\u2019t have the legal grounds for that. I have had certain feelings about certain things, but I do not think it would be right for me to say exactly what, or to express my negative feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s because Hwang is already thinking about what a Squid Game sequel might look like. \u201cThere\u2019s no saying we\u2019ll never do something again,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to close the door \u2013 there are some threads left untied. If I were to come back to the Squid Game universe, I think I would come back with a spin-off. Narratively, there\u2019s a three-year gap between seasons one and two. While Gi-hun was on the search for the Front Man and the Recruiter, what were those villains up to? What do the pink guards do outside Squid Game? Those would be fun ideas to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the matter of the show\u2019s US remake, which is reportedly being developed by David Fincher, director of Gone Girl and The Social Network. Hwang says he hasn\u2019t had any confirmation, but he looks forward to seeing Fincher\u2019s take. \u201cI am a big fan \u2013 I watched a lot of his works when I was studying film. So if it\u2019s true, I welcome it with all my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Until then, Squid Game fans have the show\u2019s final season, which seems destined to spark as much hullaballoo as the previous two. \u201cPeople have been so curious. A lot of them come to me asking for spoilers. I keep telling them that if you want to have fun watching season three, you just have to hold still. It\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n Squid Game season three is on Netflix on 27 June<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When season two of Squid Game dropped, fans were split in their response to Netflix\u2019s hit Korean drama. While some viewers loved the dialled-up-to-11 intensity of everything \u2013 more characters, more drama, more staggering brutality \u2013 others found the tone relentlessly bleak. And this was a show whose original concept \u2013 a cabal of rich<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2009,2007,2005,1557,413,378,2004,364,2008,2006],"class_list":{"0":"post-9602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-barbarity","9":"tag-brutal","10":"tag-endings","11":"tag-finale","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-games","14":"tag-happy","15":"tag-people","16":"tag-ramps","17":"tag-squid"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}