Writer and Director Hwang Dong-hyuk Reveals How Season 2 Changed the Ending of ‘Squid Game’

Fans and critics alike praised Netflix’s Squid Game, which went on to become another popular series for the streaming site. It has been a while since we learned that the series will receive a second season, the premiere date of which is coming up very, very soon.

The first season was the result of an almost 10-year creative process undertaken by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator. He couldn’t even imagine that the series would become such a major hit in such a short time and that he would have to write both Seasons 2 and 3 in a record time, which he ultimately did.

In a talk to IndieWire, Hwang Dong-hyuk discussed the creative process behind the second season, but also how the second season, which we are going to see soon, influenced the ending of the series, which we will see in the upcoming third season of the show. Here is the report!

Netflix is gradually getting ready for the second season’s premiere, which is set for December 26, 2024. If you’ve been following us recently, you probably remember that a full trailer was released several days ago, which was the best way to tease the upcoming second season of the hit show.

The series’ creator Hwang Dong-hyuk recently spoke to IndieWire and he revealed several interesting details about the upcoming season and the creative process behind making it:

Because I created Season 1 without much thought about doing the second season, when it was decided that we would do Season 2, the pressure was indeed immense. I was thinking to myself: will I really be able to pull this off? Will I be able to create or write something that would exceed Season 1?

But once I got to writing, and once I got into the story of Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returning to the games with his own motives, it actually went a lot better than I thought it would. I was able to create a story that I felt was more intriguing, come up with more interesting characters and come up with more original and intriguing games as well.

Along the way, I think that sense of burden or pressure actually changed into a source of joy, and I gradually gained the confidence that we were creating something that the fans of the first season would not be disappointed with. Having said that, it was obviously no easy feat. However, I think with that confidence, I was able to go into it with a better approach.

Aside from this, he also added that while writing the second season, he discovered something new and ultimately decided to change the ending of the third season, which is supposed to be the series’ finale as well. Here is what he said about how Season 2 influenced Season 2.

I wrote Seasons 2 and 3 at the same time… and along the storyline, there is a turning point that takes place, and that leads to a series of different events, and also leads to a significant change in the character. Relatively speaking, the ending for Season 2 came to me quite early on.

However, the ending to Season 3, actually ended up [in] a different direction than what I had initially conceived of. While I was working on the story and working on the script, I saw this new path that I wanted to go down, and so the ending of Season 3 actually changed in the process of creating Season 2.

Source: IndieWire

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