‘Squid Game’ creator reveals new details about final season, series finale

If you thought Squid Game was brutal in the first two seasons, you haven’t seen anything yet.

As the third and final season looms closer than ever, creator/writer/director Hwang Dong-hyuk is revealing new details about what fans can expect from the bloody, ruthless conclusion to his Korean survival drama — and it sounds like Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae) is in for an even tougher battle if he wants to survive the game again.

“In the case of season 3, I wanted to introduce games that could really show the lowest bottom of human beings, because the series itself is reaching its climax,” Hwang tells Entertainment Weekly. “I wanted very intense games to bring out the bottom parts of human nature.”

The showrunner created a list of games he played as a child and kept referring to it throughout the entire series, and he went back to it as he decided what games to use in the final season. “In season 1, we had lots of games like Tug of War that really utilized height and the fear that this height gives, but in the case of season 2, we didn’t have that element,” he says. “That is why in season 3, I decided to introduce games that could really infuse fear in people with sheer height.”

The creator is careful not to spoil how it all ends for Gi-hun and his fellow players, but he promises that “season 3 is indeed a finale” that attempts to deliver an inspiring message.

“For season 1, I tried to focus on how there’s intense competition going around in this extreme capitalistic society,” Hwang says. “In the case of season 2, I wanted to show how Gi-hun breaks the game’s rules by trying to introduce this revolt of trying to upend the system, but then it ends in failure. And in the case of season 3, I wanted to take a slightly different approach — I wanted to focus on how [people] have to preserve their humanity amidst this intense competition in this capitalistic era. I wanted to focus on how we can preserve our sense of humanity and how we should remain humans even amidst this intense competition. I try to pose that as a final question.”

Season 2 ended with Gi-hun leading a failed rebellion against the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), which resulted in the death of his friend, Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). When the final season begins, Gi-hun will be taking that loss harder than ever.

“Gi-hun goes through the most dramatic change, in terms of his character arc,” Hwang teases. “But I would like to point out that Myung-gi [Im Si-wan] in season 3, the father of the baby, he goes through a most dramatic character arc development. So look for Myung-gi’s change as well.”

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And speaking of that baby … the season 3 trailer teased that Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) might give birth with the sound of a baby crying at the very end of the footage. The creator won’t confirm any details about whether the baby will be born in or out of the game, but he promises that it will be a major part of the final season’s story.

“You have [heard] the baby’s crying in the trailer, so people can expect that there could be a baby,” Hwang says. “This baby plays a very important role in season 3, not just for Jun-hee, but [also] for the fate of everyone inside. You can look forward to that.”

The final season of Squid Game premieres June 27 on Netflix. Check out EW’s exclusive sneak peek photos above.