Is Squid Game USA Next? Here's what the season three finale's secret might mean for fans
Agencies Image via Epic Games.
Netflix's Squid Game Season 3 landed this week, ending the saga of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Player 456, who first captured global attention in Season 1. Viewers watched Gi-hun enter the Games to clear debts but saw him become a rebel inside the blood-soaked competition.This time, the final episode sees Gi-hun trapped in a last stand. He faces Myung-gi (Yim Si-wan) and Jun-hee's newborn baby, now Player 222. Both men kill the other contestants too soon. The cruel twist? At least one must die each round. Myung-gi's desperation ends in a fall off the platform, leaving Gi-hun with a choice — kill the baby or face the guards' guns.Gi-hun defies the Games' cruelty. He ends his own life instead, shouting he is 'not a horse to be bet on but a human with a life.' He spares the child but seals his own fate. Player 456 is gone.As the final round breaks down, Lee Byung-hun's Front Man — In-ho — blows up the Games' island. Hundreds of bodies remain inside the flaming arena. Yet In-ho takes the baby and the winnings — 45.6 billion won (roughly £26 million) — and disappears before the police arrive.The South Korean arena is finished. But the system that fed it? That flame flickers still.
While Gi-hun's life ends, other faces from the Squid Game Season 2 cast — Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) and No-eul (Park Gyu-young) — wrestle with their own escapes. Jun-ho, brother to the Front Man, reaches the island at the last moment. No-eul, torn by guilt over abandoning her own child in North Korea, helps another father flee and then tries to torch the Games' secrets.In the chaos, the wealthy VIPs leave untouched. No punishment. No change.Half a year passes. Jun-ho's ally Mr Choi (Jeon Seok-ho) is out of prison. Jun-ho drops his fight. But the Front Man appears again — and hands him Jun-hee's baby and that mountain of won Gi-hun first won. The prize lives on. So does the question: at what cost?And just when the story appears shut — one silent scene swings the door wide open. In the final minutes, In-ho rides through downtown Los Angeles. He spots a figure in a suit. Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett. She's playing Ddakji with a homeless man, echoing Gong Yoo's 'Salesman' from Squid Game Season 1.Their eyes lock. No words. Just a nod. The Front Man closes the window. The camera fades.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series creator, told Netflix's Tudum: 'We thought having a woman as a recruiter would be more dramatic and intriguing. And as for why Cate Blanchett, she's just the best, with unmatched charisma. Who doesn't love her? So we were very happy to have her appear.' He added, 'If Gong Yoo is the Korean Recruiter, I thought she would be the perfect fit as the American Recruiter, bringing a short but gripping and impactful ending to the story.' Lee Byung-hun confirmed he never met Blanchett on set: 'We shot our parts separately with just a camera going back and forth.'Blanchett's cameo fuels old rumours. For years, whispers have said Netflix might back a Squid Game USA. Deadline reported David Fincher might develop it. Dennis Kelly, of Utopia, is linked as writer. Sources suggest 'Squid Game: America' could start production in Los Angeles in December 2025. Netflix? Quiet for now.Hwang Dong-hyuk told Entertainment Weekly: '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.'Until then, the Squid Game cast stands frozen between an ending and a question mark.For Netflix, Squid Game lives beyond Gi-hun's sacrifice. There's a mobile game. The reality spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge won a BAFTA. Philadelphia and Dallas will soon house permanent Squid Game venues.So the slap of Ddakji may ring next in American streets. Squid Game Season 1 shocked the world. Seasons 2 and 3 — messy as they were — kept the fight alive. If there's more, it begins with Blanchett's nod on that Los Angeles pavement.One last question for fans: ready for the next slap?
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