Netflix is promoting the series finale of Squid Game, out this Friday, like it’s Y2K or something. So much fanfare and advertising for a show that ironically, is extremely anti-capitalist, but we’re well past that criticism at this point.
Season 3 is meant to be the end of the Squid Game, but…maybe not. This is the streaming era. Streamers do not want to give up their biggest hits, and the creators may want to keep getting paid for making those hits. Now, Squid Game creator, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk has opened up about the potential for more Squid Game in an interview with EW. A spinoff, he says:
“I actually had this faint ideation about possibly a spinoff — not a sequel, but maybe a spinoff about the three-year gap between season 1 and season 2 when Gi-hun [Lee Jung-jae] looks around for the recruiters,” Hwang said. “There is that three-year period, and maybe I could have a portrayal of what the recruiters or Captain Park [Oh Dal-su] or officers or masked men were doing in that period, not inside the gaming arena, but their life outside of that. So that is some vague ideation that I have that could possibly be developed in the future.”
That said, however, he says that season 3 is very much a finale for the current story. Rather, “I’m not trying to say that I’m going to close the door to spinoffs or sequels altogether because they say never say never.”
His idea for a spin-off would be a pretty significant departure from the other three seasons of the show. Even if it retains its star, Lee Jung-jae, it would be a spin-off that would…not actually feature the Squid Game itself. That’s sort of the entire hook of the series. Sure, I would watch this idea of these characters doing other things during those three years, but it does strike me as something of an odd idea. Rather, a sequel series or even a prequel could be focused on another game, of course.
This is, however, a very far-flung idea, if it happens at all. I’m sure Netflix will shower Hwang with all the cash and support he needs to make more Squid Game happen, but this is a guy who has gotten so stressed making the series he’s lost about half his teeth. No joke, he has literally lost almost a dozen teeth. Please man, take a break.
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