Unless your New Year’s resolution has been to limit screen time, you probably know Squid Game has returned to Netflix for a second season. Yup, there are new contestants who’ll play Korean childhood games for a cool KRW45.6 billion or literally die trying.
If you’re like us, the 7 episodes of season 2 probably went by in a flash and now all you can do is read up on theories and analyses of the show until season 3 drops sometime this year. Until then, we’ve scoured the depths of the internet and wracked our brains trying to come up with what we think is going to happen next. Here are our Squid Game season 3 theories:
Major spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
Screenshot from: Netflix
Sure, in season 2, all Seong Gi-Hun (Lee Jung Jae), or Player 456, wants is to end the sick games that have killed hundreds. But season 3 could see him have a change of heart. Maybe in a final battle with Front Man (Lee Byung Hun), he wins, and the secret society of people running Squid Game appoints him as the next Front Man.
We think Gi Hun will have no choice but to take on the role in a quest to finish off the entire Squid Game operation. Front Man is really just Final Boss #1.
Screenshot from: Netflix
In a plot twist to end all plot twists, Gi-Hun could possibly be killed in the first episode right off the bat. But he can’t die, he’s the main character! But that’s what makes it the ultimate plot twist in a show already riddled with them. Also, notice how he wasn’t shown in the mid-credit teaser at the end of season 2? Maybe someone else will step up in Gi-Hun’s place to take down Front Man.
Fans of Squid Game have pointed out that the walls of the Squid Game dormitory show 2 new games. One of them looks to be monkey bars where players fall to their death if they lose their grip. The other depicts a chessboard with players as the chess pieces.
Screenshot from: Netflix
It stands to reason that the king on either side of the board would be a battle of forces between Gi Hun and Front Man. While Gi Hun has done all he can to prevent more players from dying, he’ll now be forced by Front Man to use humans as literal pawns.
After all, it’s a game of strategy where losing a couple of pieces is necessary to protect yourself. Plus, it’s even alluded to by Gi Hun that they’re pawns in a game when he plays Russian roulette with the Recruiter (Gong Yoo).
The captain and Detective Hwang Jun Ho (Wi Ha Joon) have been searching for the hidden island where Squid Game is being played on for years now, and still haven’t found anything. Then in season 2 episode 7, it’s revealed that the captain has been a mole the entire time. He dismantled the drone and even killed off one of the hired mercenaries. We’re willing to bet he’s the one behind Gi Hun’s lost dental implant tracker.
Screenshot from: Netflix
Being a mole was a twist on its own but here’s where things get crazier: he’s doing all this because he’s the one in charge. He was supposedly the one who rescued Detective Hwang, but who’s to say he only did it to keep the police at bay so the games can continue? He’s a seafarer who should know the seas like the back of his hand, yet he can’t find one island? Sus.
Last season, we were introduced to a group of eccentric billionaires who’ve been watching Squid Game contestants kill each other for their own sadistic pleasure. We know one of them is Front Man, who also joins in as Player 001 in this season. But there are 2 others we believe could be part of the in crowd.
Screenshot from: Netflix
There’s Player 100 (Song Young Chang), who said he was an investor with a debt of KRW10 billion. The staggering figure leads us to believe he was likely a high flyer outside of the game. He’s also the instigator whenever it came time to vote to get everyone to keep playing. He could be an insider out to ensure the games kept going especially with Gi Hun trying to convince everyone to leave.
Screenshot from: Netflix
This one may be a bit more far fetched but Player 333 (Im Si Wan), who’s also Lee Myung Gi/MG Coin the YouTuber could also be a VIP. His backstory will have you believe he was a crypto investor who lost it all on the Dalmatian token. But maybe that was his plan to get people to invest, so he’d be able to reap the rewards of their folly.
We think it’s possible he’s in the game to see his “victims” of his crypto scam suffer and personally kill them off. Let’s not forget how he skillfully un-alived Player 230/Thanos (T.O.P) with just a fork.
This one’s got a more Black Mirror interpretation to it, but Squid Game could be revealed to be a corrupt government scheme at the end of it all. The game only pits those who are in debt against each other, so they’re not effectively contributing to the economy. Squid Game is a way to get rid of those who owe so much to moneylenders and banks, which they also control.
Screenshot from: Netflix
It wouldn’t be a surprise then, that the police are in on it too, since they’ve refused to help Gi Hun hunt down the Front Man. It’s also possible that the healthcare industry is a part of all this, since they’re interested in harvesting organs to sell. They’re killing 2 birds with 1 stone essentially: getting rid of society’s unwanted and making money off their body parts.
Screenshot from: Netflix
It’s revealed early on in season 2 that Soldier 11/Kang No Eul (Park Gyu Young) knows Player 246 personally as the father of a daughter with cancer that works at the amusement park she also worked at. In the last episode of season 2, she meets him face-to-face during the battle between the players and pink soldiers, and while we hear a gunshot, it doesn’t yet mean he’s dead.
Screenshot from: Netflix
While she’s been a ruthless killer throughout the games, even going so far as to shoot injured losers to ensure they’re dead, she’s also shown to be a person with softness in her heart. She can relate to Player 246 who’s here to get money for his daughter’s treatment, which reminds her of her own search for her daughter who may still be in North Korea.
This could be a changing point for Soldier 11 who might then decide that she’d rather fight with the good guys to take down the ones who’ve been killing off parents just trying to do the right thing looking out for their children.
Player 222/Kim Jun Hee (Jo Yu Ri) is heavily pregnant at the start of the game. During Red Light, Green Light, she even leans on Player 149 for support because she feels pain in her abdomen – if anything, we’re betting those were contractions. She’s mere moments from giving birth, so there’s no doubt we’ll hear the cries of a newborn in season 3.
Screenshot from: Netflix
We also know a showdown between all players, the pink soldiers, and Front Man and his VIPs is coming. For all we know, it’ll be an all-kill fight where everyone dies in the end. The sole survivor? The newborn, wrapped up and tucked away in a corner so he’s not in the middle of the tussle. And as the rules of the game go: the last man standing wins it all.
There’s no news yet as to when Squid Game season 3 will be released, but we do know that it’s already been filmed and production has wrapped up. The mid-credits teaser also shows it’ll be out sometime this year, so it shouldn’t be too long of a wait. Until then, we’ll be rewatching both Squid Game season 1 and 2 for hints on what’ll happen next.
More shows to catch on Netflix:
Cover image adapted from: Netflix
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