No, for as much as fans might want to see him in action again, Squid Game won’t be bringing back Thanos the rapper any time soon. Squid Game Season 2 made its debut last year with almost even more popularity than the first season, and a lot of the success for the new episodes came as a result of all of the new characters in the mix of the death games this time around. These characters had much fuller personalities than those seen in the first season, and some even enjoyed playing the games themselves known that life-changing money was on the line.
Videos by ComicBook.com
But some of these new characters enjoyed the situation a bit too much as Squid Game Season 2 introduced fans to the rapper named Thanos, who had purposefully named himself after the Infinity Stones collecting Marvel villain. Played by Choi Seung-hyun in the series, unfortunately the character doesn’t make it to the end of the season alive. But for as much as fans want to somehow see this character beat the odds and come back for more games in the final season, that’s just not going to happen.
Squid Game’s Deaths are Largely Permanent
One prevailing theory that has really been gaining traction with fans is that Thanos somehow survived his death in the second season, and will be rejoining the games in some way in Squid Game Season 3. The idea of someone like Thanos being able to keep playing these games despite a fatal looking wound would be fun to watch, but unfortunately it would completely wreck the reality of the series. When a death is fully shown on screen, it is never reversed. There are some loopholes as some characters have returned following presumed deaths, but deaths are largely the end for characters and their stories.
Squid Game is set within a relatively grounded world, so bringing back a character like Thanos just because he was popular with fans would wreck all of the care that has been put into setting up this world so far. Thanos himself even stood out a bit at first because he was such a wacky addition, and was thus already teetering on the edge of maybe breaking the immersion for fans wanting to fully dive into this bleak world. So when his death comes with a fork to the neck, it’s a harsh bringing back down to reality.
RELATED: Netflix Previews Its Next Squid Game (And It’s Very Different)
Squid Game Season 3’s Story Is Already Set
Ahead of Squid Game Season 2’s release, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed that he chose to break the story into two final seasons while writing out these final episodes. It’s here that fans should realize that the story is already set for the final episodes, and thus is likely not going to change even if fans are demanding a character like Thanos to return. Thanos has served his purpose in the story, and has died before the climax because there is likely a much more intense finale in store for Seung Gi-Hun and the others.
Even Thanos actor Choi Seung-hyun thought that Thanos’ purposed was served as well, and even deserved to die in the way he did. Revealing in an interview that he felt that Thanos’ “death was quite timely” and that he “also thought he deserved to die.” Thanos’ death served as a major shock because it was outside of the games, and it only works because it’s a permanent fate for a character who seemed like they were going to have a bigger role. That’s part of the tragedy of the situation overall, and therefore there’s no way he’ll come back in the final season.
Squid Game Season 3 releases with Netflix on June 27th, so we’ll see for ourselves soon enough.
