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Squid Game Season 2's Netflix release date finally announced

It's going to be a good Christmas, even if the whole family falls out

Squid Game Season 2's Netflix release date finally announced

By Andrew Williams

01 August 2024

After years of waiting, we finally know when Squid Game season 2 will come to Netflix.

It will be available to stream on December 26, 2024. How frightfully festive.

This means there will be a well over three year gap between the second and first seasons of Squid Game. Season 1 was released in September 2021.

There’s more good news. The third season won’t leave us waiting anywhere near as long.

Netflix says Squid Game season 3 is coming in 2025. But that third season will be its last.

Considering the epic popularity of the first season of Squid Game, we’d bet this decision is down to the show’s creative team rather than the Netflix execs.

The first season of Squid Game was watched for 2.2 billion hours in its first 91 days on stream, beating second place show Wednesday season 1’s 1.7 billion hours comfortably.

Its popularity hasn’t faded either. In 2023, Squid Game was watched for a further 204.3 million hours.

Since the show was released, we’ve seen Squid Game themed Netflix pop-up retail experiences and Squid Game: The Challenge. That’s a reality show in which the games of the original series play out for real. Minus the actual death. But this second "proper" season is what we've really been waiting for.

Netflix has released a brief teaser of Squid Game season 2 to whet the appetite:

It references the Olympics, currently underway, but gives little away as to what might be different in the second season of the show.

“It’s been three years. Do you want to play again?” says the voice over.

We do know a few faces will return from the first season: Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun, and Gong Yoo, alongside star Lee Jung-jae.

Of course, most of the rest of the cast will have to be new, considering the death-heavy premise of the series.

"Seong Gi-hun who vowed revenge at the end of Season 1 returns and joins the game again," said Squid Game writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk in a statement.

"Will he succeed in getting his revenge? Front Man doesn't seem to be an easy opponent this time either. The fierce clash between their two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season 3, which will be brought to you next year. I am thrilled to see the seed that was planted in creating a new Squid Game grow and bear fruit through the end of this story."

The filming of Squid Game season 2 reportedly began way back in July 2023, but star Lee Jung-jae told CBR it would likely take 10 months, due to the increased scale of the second season.

You can bet it will have been more costly than the original. The first season of Squid Game cost a mere $21 million, not far off the cost of a single episode of House of the Dragon.