Alice in Borderland season 3
We’re mere days from the premiere of Alice in Borderland season 3, the Japanese dystopian thriller that first screened on Netflix in 2020 and quickly became a global hit; the series was renewed for a second season just 2 weeks after its release.
It’s been more than 2 years since the big reveal at the end of season 2, and even if you’re just now catching up to speed, here’s everything you need to know, without bingeing the last 16 episodes.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for seasons 1 and 2 of Alice in Borderland.
When will season 3 be released?
Season 3 was first announced on 27th September 2023, and filming is said to have wrapped up by Q3 of 2024. Netflix Japan dropped a teaser trailer in July this year, officially announcing the premiere of season 3, the final instalment of the series, to be set for 25th September 2025.
What is Alice in Borderland about?
Image credit: Netflix
Alice in Borderland was originally released as a manga by Japanese manga artist Haro Aso which ran from 2010-2016 over 18 volumes, with a spin-off series, Alice on Border Road, illustrated by Takayoshi Kuroda, and a sequel, Alice in Borderland: Retry, which spanned 2 volumes.
Image credit: Netflix
The manga was adapted into the Netflix live-action series, following Ryohei Arisu and a band of other characters, who have been transported into an alternate-reality version of Tokyo, where they’re forced to compete in deadly games as determined by playing cards.
- Hearts: Games involving psychology
- Diamonds: Games testing intelligence, strategy, and wits
- Clubs: Games testing all-around abilities and cooperation
- Spades: Games of physical endurance, strength, and agility
Win, and their “visas” are extended; lose, and their “visas” eventually expire, whereupon they’re executed by lasers from the sky. Their goal: to collect all the playing cards, find the mastermind behind the Borderland, and return home.
Besides the players, there are Dealers in the Borderlands, who are also immigrants from the real world. Dealers are only responsible for numbered card games, and set up the venues for each game. Unlike the players, Dealers’ visas are extended based on the number of players who die in the game which they set up.
Image credit: Netflix
The end of season 1 saw the players progress to the Next Stage of the games, with the introduction of Face Cards – King, Queen, and Jack – signalling games with increased levels of complexity and brutality.
P.S.: If this sounds like Squid Game, we’ll have you know that Alice in Borderland hit screens a whole year before the Korean show.
P.P.S.: Yes, Alice in Borderland is inspired by Lewis Caroll’s classic – you can read all about how the characters in the show have counterparts in the novel.
Alice in Borderland season 2 recap
Image credit: Netflix
Season 2 of the show saw Arisu, Usagi, and the group of survivors continue on their quest to collect all the playing cards and find a way back to the real world. In this stage, they face off against Citizens of Borderland – victors of previous rounds who elected to stay as permanent residents in the Borderlands, however it’s also game over for them the moment they lose their game.
Image credit: Netflix
They face off against the King of Clubs, Kyuma, with no weapons in hand as a city-wide massacre pushes the characters to the limits of their humanity. There’s a cat-and-mouse game with the King of Spades as the protagonists pick up other survivors to form ragtag teams as they try to outwit the Citizens.
Image credit: Netflix
By its finale, Alice in Borderland season 2 sees Arisu and Usagi play croquet against the Queen of Hearts, Mira – a game that turns out to be a psychological, more than physical, challenge. The pair emerge victorious, and alongside the remaining survivors are given the choice to stay and become Citizens, or return home to the real world.
Image credit: Netflix
As it turns out, all of the key players in Borderland were casualties of a meteor strike – previously assumed to be fireworks – that had levelled a part of Tokyo. The Borderlands was the purgatory, or limbo, where all of them were existing in a collective consciousness between life and death; the survivors were the ones who awoke in a hospital, 2 days after the disaster had struck, with no memory of their time in Borderland.
Image credit: Netflix
Some of them, including Arisu and Usagi, recognise each other, as the show ends on a scene of playing cards that get blown off a table, leaving just a Joker card.
Cast of Alice in Borderland season 3
Like in every other survival thriller show – think Battle Royale and Squid Game – not everyone is going to make it to the end alive. Our central protagonists, Arisu and Usagi, however, have come out on the other side of more life-or-death situations than we can count. Played by Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya respectively, the pair of actors are back to reprise their roles once again.
Image credit: Netflix
The trailer for season 3 revealed that Ann, played by Ayaka Miyoshi, will return to season 3, in spite of the injuries she sustained in the last episode of season 2, to bring Arisu back to Borderland. Rounding out the list of familiar faces are Banda and Yaba – brought to life by Hayato Isomura and Katsuya Maiguma.
Image credit: Netflix
It’s not clear if we’re going to see any other faces from the earlier seasons, but you can definitely look forward to fresh blood in the form of Kento Kaku, playing Ryuji, a researcher who sends Usagi back into the alternate universe, as well as new cast members Koji Ohkura, Risa Sudou, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Tina Tamashiro, Kotaro Daigo, Hyunri, and Sakura Kiryu, whose characters are undisclosed at this time.
Fan theories & predictions for Alice in Borderland season 3
Image credit: Netflix
Early reviews are already out on the web, but if you’re interested, here are some fan theories and predictions for season 3 that will have you on the edge of your seat, before we get into what has been revealed about the final instalment:
- Yaba and Banda, who chose to stay in Borderlands, return as gamemasters.
- Everyone who awoke in the hospital in the season 2 finale had merely progressed to another level of the Borderland – they never left the game.
- Season 3’s Joker card and other games will take place in the real world.
- It’ll be based on Alice in Borderland: Retry, following an older Arisu who returns to Borderland years after season 2, and is forced to confront different aspects of himself.
- The Joker card is a reset card that offers the player the power to resurrect someone.
- The entire game is a simulation or experiment to study how people react in extreme situations, a la The Maze Runner.
- Usagi’s father is the Joker.
What can I expect from Alice in Borderland season 3?
Image credit: Netflix
As with the Face Cards of season 1, we can expect that the cryptic Joker card suggests the game is, in fact, not over, and heralds a new, more sinister set of challenges to come. Unlike before, you won’t be able to follow the story through the manga series, because that’s as far as it goes.
According to Director Shinsuke Sato, they’ve deviated from the source material to create a fresh storyline that blends inspiration from the manga and OG Alice in Wonderland, with Arisu’s Yamazaki sharing that there will be games from the manga which they had not featured in the earlier seasons.
Image credit: Netflix
In producers Akira Morii and Tomoki Takase’s words, the characters in this season will not be driven by “rash acts of despair, but of purpose” – suggesting that their reappearance in the Borderlands are deliberate choices, rather than involuntary like in season 1.
Image credit: Netflix
The official synopsis for season 3 tells us that “Arisu and Usagi cleared every card’s game and returned to the real world. Now married, they lead a happy life, though their memories of the Borderland surface only in dreams and hallucinations. One day, Usagi suddenly vanishes. Guided by Ryuji, a man who studies the afterlife, she sets out for the Borderland. A devastated Arisu is visited by Banda, now a Borderland resident, who informs him of Usagi’s whereabouts. Arisu must now follow her back into inevitable danger to find her.”
Spoiler: Yamazaki has teased that Arisu and Usagi will find themselves on different teams in the upcoming season.
Watch Alice in Borderland S3 on Netflix
Apologies to fans of the series, because there will only be 6 episodes in this instalment – 2 fewer than the 8 in each of the previous seasons. It’s also speculated that each episode has a shorter run time of 55-61 minutes, with some reviewers finding that it was insufficient to fully go into character development of the new faces on the show.
Nonetheless, the series will be found in its entirety on Netflix this Thursday, so it’s time to clear your calendars for the weekend and prep some popcorn for the ride.
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Cover image adapted from: Netflix