The release date for the highly-anticipated second season of Netflix’s Squid Game has been announced.
Season two of the Korean dystopian drama will arrive just after Christmas on December 26, the streaming service announced on Wednesday (July 31) alongside a teaser clip.
A third and final season will arrive sometime in 2025.
The official description for season two states: “Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune to fund his search, Gi-hun starts with the most obvious of places: look for the man in a sharp suit playing ddakji in the subway. But when his efforts finally yield results, the path toward taking down the organization proves to be deadlier than he imagined: to end the game, he needs to re-enter it.”
The sequel series will arrive nearly three years after its 2021 nine-episode debut, which broke records for Netflix. It currently ranks as the most-watched season of television in the company’s history.
Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series about a group of cash-strapped contestants fighting to the death for a life-changing sum of money was among the list of popular Netflix originals returning sometime this year.
It became the first non-English language drama series to receive nominations in several major categories at the Emmy Awards, including Best Drama. Lead star Lee Jung-jae became the first Korean to win the Best Actor award.
Hwang also became the first Asian director to win in the Outstanding Drama Series category and the first ever director to win for a non-English language series.
Lee will return to star in season two alongside fellow returning cast members Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun, and Gong Yoo. New cast members include: Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Jo Yu-ri, and Won Ji-an.
The series’ renewal was announced in 2022 during Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings call, with CEO Ted Sarandos saying “the Squid Game universe has just begun.”
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In November last year the streamer debuted the first season of its spin-off reality game series, Squid Game: The Challenge, which similarly saw 456 money-desperate individuals compete in various children’s games based on those featured in the show for a chance to win $4.56m – the biggest jackpot in TV history.
A week later, The Challenge was renewed for a second season.