Squid Game season two premiere announced by Netflix for 2024

Squid Game will return with its highly anticipated season two later this year, Netflix has confirmed.

The second sequel to the streamer’s hit Korean drama will arrive nearly three years after its 2021 nine-episode debut, which broke records for the streamer.

“Looking ahead, despite last year’s strikes pushing back the launch of some titles, we have a big, bold slate for 2024,” Netflix said in a letter sent to its shareholders on Tuesday (23 January), according to Variety.

Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series about a group of cash-strapped contestants fighting to the death for a life-changing sum of money was among the list of popular Netflix originals returning sometime this year.

Other shows on the list included season three of Bridgerton, season six of Love is Blind, and season six of F1: Drive to Survive.

The series was officially renewed in 2022 during Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings call, with Ted Sarandos saying Squid Game would “absolutely” be getting a second season, adding, “the Squid Game universe has just begun”.

In November, the streamer debuted the first season of its spin-off reality game series, Squid Game: The Challenge, which similarly saw 456 money-desperate individuals compete in various children’s games, based on those featured in the show, for a chance to win $4.56m – the biggest jackpot in TV history.

A week later, The Challenge was renewed for a second season.

Squid Game was not only a massive hit with viewers, but with the Television Academy’s voting body as well.

It became the first non-English language drama series not only to receive several nominations in major categories at the Emmy Awards, including Best Drama, but its star Lee Jung-jae became the first Korean actor to win the Best Actor award.

Hwang also became the first Asian director to win in the Outstanding Drama Series category and the first ever director to win for a non-English language series.

“It took 12 years to bring the first season of Squid Game to life last year,” Hwang wrote on X in 2022. “But it took 12 days for Squid Game to become the most popular Netflix series ever. As the writer, director, and producer of Squid Game, a huge shout out to fans around the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show.”

He teased the season two return of fan-favourite characters, including protagonist Gi-hun or Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae) and its masked antagonist, The Front Man (played by Lee Byung-hun), who organises the titular, deathly games.

“The man in the suit with ddakji might be back,” Hwang added, referring to The Salesman (Gong Yoo), who recruits Gi-hun to play in the games.