It’s been over three years since Squid Game first premiered on Netflix in September 2021, but today — on Halloween 2024 — the streamer gave the “green light” to show patient fans their first sneak peeks at Squid Game Season 2. Netflix has unveiled a series of first look photos as well as the first teaser trailer for Squid Game 2. At over 90 seconds long, the Squid Game Season 2 trailer not only reunites us with the likes of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), the mysterious “Front Man” (Lee Byung-hun), and our destructive diva, girl robot Younghee, but it also gives us some tantalizing clues about how series creator and director Hwang Dong-Hyuk has entirely reimainged the horror that is “Squid Game.”
Squid Game Season 1 followed a group of absolutely desperate people as they willingly entered a “Hunger Games” style competition to win a 45.6 billion won prize. In the end, the sole winner was the charming gambler Gi-hun, known in the game as Player 456. What makes the game even more twisted, Gi-hun discovered, is that it was entirely created for the depraved entertainment of obscenely wealthy “VIPs.” While Gi-hun works to survive this ordeal, intrepid police officer Jun-ho has infiltrated the private island where this all goes down.
Squid Game Season 1 ends with Jun-ho presumed dead — shot by the Front Man, who is revealed to be his presumed dead brother In-ho — and a hardened Gi-hun refusing to fade quietly from the fight with his fortune. So what happens next?
The first trailer for Squid Game 2 confirms that Jun-ho is alive and well (and back on the case), Gi-hun has returned to the game, and that a major new wrinkle has been added to the rules by the powers that be.
Here’s a full breakdown of the Squid Game Season 2 trailer, complete with our analysis of what you might have missed with official preview stills from Netflix peppered in…
WHAT WE SEE IN THE FIRST 8 SECONDS:The first Squid Game Season 2 teaser opens on a familiar sight: an overhead crane shot of hundreds of competitors, still clad in their iconic green sweatsuits, milling through the game’s candy pink MC Escher nightmare aesthetics. Then, our hero, Seong Gi-hun, aka Player 456, is asked to once more “smile” for his picture. He stares down the camera in rage. The Netflix logo appears.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Lee Jung-jae might be back for Squid Game Season 2, but this is not the Gi-hun we first met in Season 1. Besides the fact that Gi-hun has gotten a makeover — farewell, shaggy red hair, hello, close-cropped ‘do — he no longer approaches the game with a goofy grin and plucky attitude. This is a man hardened.
WHAT WE SEE 00:08 – 00: 20: A masked guard in a pink jumpsuit tells a new batch of Squid Game competitors in the barracks, “I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to you all.” Gi-hun watches on.
We watch Player 456 shuffle into the “Red Light, Green Light” area, alongside Player 390. The guard continues: “Once each of the games has concluded, you may call for a vote. If the majority agrees, you may take the accumulated prize money and leave.”
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Oh, boy, the rules have changed! You’ll recall that in Squid Game Season 1, the players who survived the initial massacre of “Red Light, Green Light” could vote on whether or not to stay in the competition. However, in Season 1, they could vote to leave with their lives, but without a single cent. It sounds like in Squid Game Season 2, there will be a cash incentive to stay in the game longer and longer. Leave early with your lives — and some cash that you split equally amongst yourselves — or risk it all for all the money.
WHAT WE SEE 00:20 – 00:29: As players arrive in the “Red Light, Green Light” set, Player 390 points at the creepy robot girl known to fans as “Younghee.” “What is that?” he asks. (IT’S YOUNGHEE, DUH.) She sings “Green Light” and then “Red Light” and we cut to Gi-Hun, Player 456 himself, nobly leading the whole group through the game like a conductor. “Now hold!” he says. Everyone holds.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Gi-Hun’s strategy has completely changed. Instead of just blustering through the games, trying to survive to nab the grand prize, he’s attempting to keep each and every player alive. Of course, this is Squid Game, so good luck with that. Also worth noting: the trailer seems to suggest that “Red Light, Green Light” is always the first game in Squid Game. Which might account extra for how stoked good ole Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) was to play.
WHAT WE SEE 00:29 – 0:42: “What’s that?” A female player in the frozen crowd whispers. “You’ve got a bee crawling on you,” a male player with purple hair whispers back. The woman begins screaming in panic. A nervous player 007 side-eyes what’s going on as do a few other players. “Shit. I just moved, didn’t I?” The woman asks, laughing. A bullet flies through her head, killing her instantly. Gi-hun sees this. Younghee sees this. Oh, and another female player sees it and begins screaming in horror. She is soon shot down, too.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Conspiracy theorists may say purple-haired player lied about the bee, intending to eliminate part of the competition as soon as possible. However, you not only can hear a bee buzzing in the sound mix, but there is a bee hovering around the woman as she flails.
WHAT WE SEE 00:42 – 1:12: Back in the dorm, the guard from before says, “You may choose to stay and continue playing to increase your potential winnings or choose to stop the games now and leave.” We see a montage of players, including the aforementioned 007, voting “Yes” or “No.” The difference this time between Season 1 and 2 is now players have to wear patches that identify their choice on their jumpsuit. “The decision is entirely up to you,” the guard says.
“Don’t do this to yourselves,” Gi-hun says, with a red “X” for “quit” on his jacket. “Just focus on getting out of this place. There’s a montage of more votes, more overhead shots of the game and dormitory, and then an irate player asks, “And who do you think you are? You work for these guys?” “I’VE PLAYED THESE GAMES BEFORE!” Gi-hun screams. “If we don’t stop this, they’ll kill us all!” “Why the hell come crawling back?” another antagonistic player asks.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Even if we already figured out that Gi-hun wants to save everyone and that the games have added a wrinkle by giving players a new cash incentive to stay in the game longer, this section reveals that players will have to identify themselves via their last vote for the duration of the game. This helps create rival factions and offers the opportunity for drama should someone flip their vote from round to round. MORE MESSED UP MIND GAMES!
WHAT WE SEE 1:13 – 1:19: We then cut to the Front Man sitting in his cozy chair, observing this all. Chants of “One more game!” begin. Rather than just being a slightly meta answer to the last question — and a tease to audiences — it seems that some players are chanting this order during the voting. A hand pushes a lever and the game’s massive piggy bank drops from the ceiling, empty for now, but probably not for long, as the chants of “One more game!” continue.
Title cards flash, “There is no stopping the game,” in between a frenetic series of shots. First, players look up at the piggy bank as cash is dropped in and immediately we see someone vote to stay in the game longer.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Thematically, I find this new wrinkle in the game fascinating because instead of exploring how far people will go for a lump sum of money to improve their lives, series creator Hwang is casting an eye at how peer pressure can push people to be more avaricious and less humane. At least, that’s the vibe I’m getting from the bullying chants of “One more game!” (What? You don’t like the socio-economic game theory elements of Squid Game??)
WHAT WE SEE 1:20 – 1:23: Then a guard lifts a pistol to shoot at the sky and then a group of five players are shot down. Other groups of a similar size are clustered in the background and the room appears to be wallpapered with children’s drawings of clouds and rainbows.
There then seems to be a trio of brightly colored numbered doors: red underneath the #32, yellow under #33, and green under #34. There are slits in each door and you can see eyes peering out. The whole structure evokes a carnival.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: New games! New games! Games we haven’t seen before!
WHAT WE SEE 1:23 – 1:25: Back in the dorms, the purple-haired player punches another player. More and more money falls into the piggy bank. Outside the game, Jun-ho is apart of what appears to be an armed mission. Soldiers in black, armed with rifles, move through trees. A group of guards fire their own rifles in unison. A crowd of players screams (or cheers?) as a countdown clock in the background reaches “0:06.”
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Confirmation that the purple-haired player is indeed going to be an actual agent of chaos in the game, Jun-ho is back and back on the hunt for his brother and the game, and that crowd seems to be in the same venue where the quintet of players were gunned down earlier in the trailer.
WHAT WE SEE 1:25 – 1:29: A player covers their ears in horror while in bed in the dormitory as light flashes and we see a player beating another below. A player is shot down in another game — the aforementioned doors are in the background there. Another player votes yes.
Jun-ho looks at a screen or console outside. More money drops into the piggy bank. An elderly woman player — identified as Player 149 in Netflix’s first look images — looks on in fear as crowds rush around her. Then an elderly woman, perhaps the same, hugs player 007, who is in tears. We see another “yes” vote.”
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Late night “Purge” style beat downs will once again be apart of the games and Player 007 and this empathetic old lady are likely going to be our new gganbus, as in, characters who tug on our heart strings!!!
WHAT WE SEE 1:29 – END: A close up of Gi-hun looking horrified (seemingly in the “Red Light, Green Light” arena). An armed guard turns to look at camera. Players sprint en masse to the “Red Light, Green Light” finish line. Jun-ho has a flashlight. Players are panicking. A female player, tears in her eyes, peers through a slot on a green door while another crying woman tries to reach through the slot of a blue door. Before the final title card, we see a close up of Gi-hun’s panicking face.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Whatever is going on with those doors, it looks majorly messed up given the total fear on both ladies’ faces. Squid Game 2 might actually top the horror of Season 1?!?
Holidays too jolly for you? Squid Game Season 2 premieres on December 26, only on Netflix.