'Squid Game' features a bizarre cameo in its series finale. Here's what it means for the franchise's future.
The "Squid Game" season three finale has an emotional ending for its main characters.
A cameo from a major celebrity hints that another season or show may be in the works.
Here's how the show ends and what we know about the show's future.
Warning: spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season three.
"Squid Game" season three has an explosive, tear-jerking ending that wraps up Seong Gi-hun's story, but a brief cameo in the finale opens the door for a whole new spin-off.
The show's first two seasons, about people in huge amounts of debt competing in a competition of lethal games, are the first and third most-watched series on Netflix. The streaming platform has already capitalized on the show's popularity by making a spin-off reality show, " Squid Game: The Challenge," and releasing related merchandise and experiences.
But Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of the "Squid Game," has been adamant in interviews that the main show will end in three seasons, no matter how much fans love it.
"The story I wanted to tell came to a full closure at the end of season 3," Hwang told Entertainment Weekly in December.
Season three directly follows the ending of season two, in which Seong Gi-hun, the lead character who won the competition in season one, participates in a second version of the games. In the season two finale, he attempts to overthrow the game makers with fellow players, but the rebellion fails, and almost all the rebels are killed.
Gi-hun makes a bold sacrifice to save the life of a newborn baby
In season three, the game makers force Gi-hun to continue playing, leaving him bitter, angry, and hopeless. After his former ally, Kim Jun-hee, suddenly gives birth in one of the games, Gi-hun is persuaded to look after her and the baby.
After Jun-hee dies, the game makers make the baby take over her role as the player, which puts a target on Gi-hun and the infant. In the final game, Gi-hun and the baby survive as the final two, but one must die to finish the game. Gi-hun sacrifices himself so the baby can live, and Gi-hun's leftover money from winning the games in season one is given to his daughter in America.
Gi-hun's last words, "We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are…" refer to a comment made in season one that the players are treated like horses.
After Gi-hun's death, the rest of the season finale wraps up character arcs for the other main characters. Hwang Jun-ho, a detective who tried to help Gi-hun stop the games, finally makes it to the games' island, but he is too late to save anyone, and the game organizers evacuate.
Jun-ho confronts his brother, In-ho, the leader of the games, but the brother walks away from him with the baby. Six months later, Jun-ho finds the baby and the prize money in his apartment.
Choi Woo-seok, arrested after trying to help Jun-ho find the games' island, is released around the same time and plans to open a hotel. Cheol, the brother of Sae-byeok from the first season, is reunited with his mother. Meanwhile, No-eul, one of the guards who helps a player escape, discovers her missing daughter is in China.
The biggest surprise happens in the final few seconds. In-ho, who gave Gi-hun's money and belonging to his daughter, is being driven through LA when he sees a woman and a man playing Ddjaki in an alleyway.
She is played by two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and is another recruiter for the games.
Cate Blanchett's cameo may be teasing a new spin-off
On the one hand, the cameo could be teasing that the show will continue into a fourth season. But season three has been advertised as the final season, so it's more likely it's teasing an American spin-off of "Squid Game," which may have a different showrunner.
Rumors have spread as early as 2023 that Netflix was planning a US remake of "Squid Game," with David Fincher developing the show. The streaming platform has not confirmed this.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hwang has also offered other spin-off ideas in recent interviews with Metro and Entertainment Weekly that focus on In-ho and his employees, the recruiter (Gong Yoo), and Captain Park (Oh Dal-su), during the three-year gap between the games in seasons one and two.
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