Squid Game season 3 release, cast plans, and what we know so far

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the end of Squid Game season 2.]

Squid Game season 2 has come to an end with a bit of a bang and a whimper. Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) has effectively lost his attempt at gaining control of the game, and the aggressive cut on the ending leaves a lot to be desired. (For me; no shade, I just desire to see more.)

Luckily, Squid Game season 3 is already on its way — and might already be in the can, with a release date promised in 2025. Here’s everything we know about the new season of the hit show.

Is there going to be a Squid Game season 3?

Yes! In a July letter announcing the release date for season 2, showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk announced that Squid Game had been picked up for a third and final season already.

When will Squid Game season 3 come out?

This is a little more up in the air. The initial announcement said 2025. So far there’s been no specific date, but with production for the third season reportedly having already been rolled into season 2, it could be any time. Not really (Netflix likes to make a splash of things) — that’s more to say, if it’s already in the can, that the new season isn’t going to have to wait on a longer schedule to get turned around. It’s possible we get season 3 sometime in the summer, rather than waiting until a full year from now.

What will season 3 of Squid Game be about?

Well, it’s certainly going to have to pick up the pieces: Gi-hun tried to lead a rebellion and take down the games from the inside. That went poorly, to put it mildly. It cost his most enthusiastic allies their lives, including his best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). There’s still a large contingent of players hiding out in the barracks, and who even knows what kinds of games they’re going to get put through after this. Plus, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) has decidedly switched back into his main persona, deserting his role as Player 001 to stand imposingly over a weeping Gi-hun.

So it seems like the safest guess in the world that season 3 of Squid Game will pick up with those in the games — on both sides of the divide — possibly moments after where season 2 left us. After all, there’s plenty to still figure out, like: What happens to the games now? How much of this did the Front Man anticipate? Where do the other players, each desperate for their own rescue (financial or otherwise), land in all this? Will the rich people who run the games be upset? What does Gi-hun do now?

Will Squid Game season 3 be the last season?

It will be the final season of the show. Considering Squid Game was originally meant to just be a single season, that’s pretty good! Especially since Hwang feels the finale — whatever it may be — flowed organically from the writing. “When I was thinking about the idea for the ending of season three, I think it sort of naturally came to me that this was the finale,” Hwang said. “I believed that with that story, I was able to tell everything that I wanted to tell through the story of Squid Game and also in the perspective of Gi-hun as a character, and I thought that we don’t need any further stories from here.”

What games will be in Squid Game season 3?

Squid Game season 2 threw a bit of a wrench into Gi-hun’s plans: Although he briefly thought he could simply save everyone by helping them get through the games together with his inside knowledge, it turned out that after Red Light, Green Light there was a whole new batch of games awaiting him.

So, assuming the games move forward (even just for a single level — which, given the number of people left, seems like the exact sort of cruel thing the game makers would do), what childhood game will they subject people to? The stakes have never seemed bloodier or less hopeful, so it seems like the game makers might trot out something truly sick, like Double Dutch.