Warning: This article contains Squid Game 2 spoilers. “If the world doesn’t change,” the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) tells Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in Squid Game season 2, “the game doesn’t end.” As Player 456, Gi-hun was the winner of the 33rd Squid Game’s 45.6 billion won prize — a fortune he’s using to finance a three-year mission to end the deadly games once and for all. Unbeknownst to Gi-hun, who chooses to re-enter the game, he’s not the only returning winner: Hwang In-ho, a.k.a. Front Man, adopts the name “Young-il” and poses as Player 001 after winning the 28th Squid Game in 2015.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The seven-episode second season ends with “Young-il” betraying Gi-hun and his allied players during their armed rebellion against the pink guards. Returning to his Front Man persona, the masked In-ho taunts Gi-hun over his failed “hero games” before eliminating Player 390 — by shooting and killing Gi-hun’s best friend, Park Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan).
[RELATED: Squid Game Universe: Netflix “Has a Plan” for More Squid Game After Third and Final Season, Says Creator]
“Audiences are definitely going to be shocked and very sad to see Jung-bae go,” Squid Game creator and writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk told Netflix’s Tudum. Hwang noted that his friend from outside the games was “the only person within the games that Gi-hun can trust and completely rely on.”
Jung-bae is the final casualty of Squid Game 2, which concludes with Gi-hun screaming in anguish after the squashed rebellion that he believes also took the life of his friend Young-il. As for whether Gi-hun knows that Front Man and Player 001 are one and the same, Lee Jung-jae said, “I don’t think Gi-hun knows the truth yet,” because he’s too busy “blaming himself for everything that happened.”
Hwang added Front Man faking Young-il’s death isn’t a true “betrayal” because “that was his intention and plan all along. That moment is really the climax of season 2. The Front Man starts off the season with his mask off, but then returns to himself and ends with his mask back on.”
Gi-hun and In-ho are diametrically opposed: while Gi-hun tries to spare players’ lives, In-ho refers to the indebted players as “trash.” In-ho is “someone who believes that there is absolutely no hope for the world or humanity,” Lee Byung-hun explained. “It’s almost as if they’re betting against each other. The Front Man is asking questions like, ‘Do you really think you’re going to be able to end the game? Do you really think there’s hope in people? Do you think the world’s going to change?’”
Squid Game 3 Is Squid Game 2 Part 2
That’s the question going into Squid Game 3. The third and final season is the “second chapter of Gi-hun and Front Man’s showdown,” Hwang teased of the season split into two parts.
After failing to persuade the other players to vote “X” and stop the games (versus voting “O” to continue playing), Gi-hun also “failed at trying to use physical power and strength to go up against those that were hosting the game,” Hwang added. Going into season 3, Lee Jung-jae said of Gi-hun, “His best friend’s gone, he’s been ripped of everything. He’s lost all he’s got.”
Hwang said this “state of deep despair” drives Gi-hun going into season 3. “Is he still going to believe that he will be able to persuade others and leave together or put an end to the game? Or will he give in and become a completely different person? Someone just like the Front Man, who thinks, ‘What can I change?’”
Squid Game 3 premieres later in 2025 on Netflix.
