To be frank, the extremely brief (and very vague) teaser trailer for “Squid Game” season 2 wasn’t enough to get us jazzed about the long-awaited return of Netflix’s most popular show of all time — especially since it’s been three dang years since the show originally premiered. Everyone who watched it back then has moved on with their lives, so while Netflix can obviously promote the heck out of this by using its algorithm to plop it back on every subscriber’s home screen the day the new season drops, you have to wonder if anyone at the streamer is nervous about a majority of viewers straight up forgetting the finer points of the show after all this time. (For a refresher, you can check out our ranking of every “Squid Game” season 1 episode right here.)
Thankfully, the full-length trailer has finally arrived, providing a much more in-depth look at the return to the candy-colored, late-stage capitalist hellscape we all visited in 2021. Here’s the official synopsis for season 2:
“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.”
Hey, at least we won’t have to wait as long for the next season; the third and final season of the show is set to premiere sometime in 2025.
The (squid) game will not stop
The newest teaser trailer was released at the Geeked Week celebration in Atlanta, highlighting the return of Seong Gi-hun (Emmy Award-winner Lee Jung-jae) to the titular games, once again, as Player 456 once again. Seong Gi-hun has been having a tough time since the last games, he’s now constantly keeping a weapon on him and awaiting the return of the game makers. Alas, they’re back, and he’s getting tossed back into the games like Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Based on the trailer, it also looks like the Squid Game workers are having a larger presence this season, with shots of them working in some sort of control center with plenty of monitors. Curiously, there also seems to be a new leader of the workers, wearing the same shape masks but with a black tracksuit instead of the pink ones. Is this an even more powerful worker, or perhaps someone hoping to help Seong from the inside?
What games the contestants will be playing is still unseen, but in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot, there’s a new and improved Red Light/Green Light course. And yes, the giant doll is back! Additional returning cast members for season 2 of the Emmy-winning series include Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun, and Gong Yoo. They’re joined by newcomers to the series, 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.
“Squid Game” season 2 returns on December 26, 2024.