Squid Game Split Its Story for Final Two Seasons for One Simple Reason

Squid Game is taking fans back to Netflix’s life-threatening games not once but twice, as the show will come to an end after the final two seasons. Season 2 is right around the corner, premiering on Netflix on December 26th, as Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) looks to re-enter the games and save the other players.

Everyone expected Squid Game to get a second season — after all, it is one of Netflix’s most profitable shows of all time. But, when Netflix announced that the show’s creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, is taking two more seasons to bring the series to a close, it came as a big surprise. But Hwang has a very good and practical reason for stretching the show out into two more seasons.

Squid Game Needed to Be Three Seasons Long

“I originally envisioned seasons 2 and 3 as a single story,” Hwang told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview. Hwang reportedly spent around a decade developing the first season of Squid Game, which debuted on Netflix in 2021. But Hwang has managed to pump out two more seasons in three years.

It turns out that the smaller time frame actually led Hwang to write far more than he anticipated. “That’s how I wrote it. But in the process, it came out to be too many episodes,” he continued. “So I thought it’d be better to divide it into two.” Season 2 of Squid Game hits Netflix this December. Season 3 will release a year later in 2025, although an exact release date hasn’t been announced yet. Expect a more concrete date to be unveiled once Season 2 has been released.

Season 1 of Squid Game was an international phenomenon. The South Korean thriller was the most watched single season of TV on Netflix when it was released (that record has since been broken by Season 1 of Wednesday). But, during the 10-year development process for Season 1, Hwang didn’t anticipate a second season.

[RELATED: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Creates An Unexpected Squid Game Easter Egg]

Hwang Dong-hyuk Only Planned One Season of Squid Game

“Honestly, when I was first working on the first season, I didn’t have any plans or thoughts about there ever being further seasons,” he revealed. “In Korea, it’s not very common for series to have multiple seasons, and also because Season 1 was so incredibly demanding, so I don’t think I had the confidence to once again work on further [seasons] where I would be the writer, director, and creator all throughout.”

As we gear up for Season 2’s release, Squid Game fever has once again swept the fandom. Expect next year’s Halloween to be dominated by pink and green jumpsuits. To celebrate Season 2’s upcoming release, even Google has gotten in on the action. If you type “Squid Game” into the browser, a card will pop up at the bottom of the screen. Click it, and you can play the infamous Red Light, Green Light game from Season 1.

Alongside Lee Jung-jae, Season 2 will also see Lee Byung-hun return as the ominous leader of the games, known as Front Man. Wi Ha-jun also returns as Hwang Jun-ho, the detective looking to shut down the games, while Gong Yoo will reprise their role as the Recruiter, who entices vulnerable players to risk their lives for money.

H/T: Entertainment Weekly