Latest news with #SquidGame2
Pink Villa
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Squid Game 3 stuns with surprise cameos from TOP, Jung Ho Yeon, Cate Blanchett and more: Check out full list
Disclaimer: This article contains Squid Game 3 spoilers. Squid Game Season 3 has finally arrived, with Lee Jung Jae and Lee Byung Hun bringing the series to a dramatic close. Squid Game 3, starring Lee Jung Jae and Lee Byung Hun, delivered a heart-wrenching finale. By crafting an emotionally-rich narrative, the series left an indelible mark on viewers' hearts. Furthermore, the inclusion of several cameos, including appearances by stars from previous seasons, enhanced the thrill of the series. Squid Game 3: Cameos from T.O.P and other previous season stars Squid Game 2's eliminated (killed) characters Thanos (T.O.P) and Se Mi (Won Ji An) appear in an hallucination segment. The timid Park Min Su (David Lee) gets his hands on some of Thanos' drugs and ingests it to muster up courage to continue playing the deadly games. As a reaction to that, his body starts feeling weird and he feels a sudden sense of euphoria. Not being in his right mind, he hallucinates Thanos, his bully and Se Mi, the only one who stayed by his side in the game show. He visualises the duo trying to drag him down to death with them. Kang Sae Byeok (Jung Ho Yeon) from Squid Game Season 1 also makes a cameo in the third instalment. Song Gi Hun (Lee Jung Jae) imagines her stopping him from killing everybody to save Kim Jun Hee's (Jo Yu Ri) baby. The situation arises as Song Gi Hun is offered by the Front Man to kill everybody who wanted to kill the baby, who is now player 222 in place of their dead mother. Besides the Korean actors, the series also featured a notable cameo from a prominent Hollywood figure. Cate Blanchett's cameo in Squid Game Season 3 ending In the final scene of Squid Game season 3, Australian actress Cate Blanchett makes a surprise cameo appearance as a recruiter. Her role is similar to Gong Yoo's character from the first two seasons. She is seen playing ddakji with a man in an alleyway in Los Angeles when she makes eye contact with the Front Man, who watches her from a car. The scene strongly suggests a potential American spin-off series is in development.
Pink Villa
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Waiting for Gyeongdo: Park Seo Joon, Won Ji An's rom-com confirms December 2025 premiere, know character details
Waiting for Gyeongdo is a romantic comedy drama produced by JTBC that explores the silent struggles and complexities that often hide behind a facade of perfection. The series boasts a fresh on-screen pairing, with Park Seo Joon and Won Ji An starring as the leads. On June 27, the drama's production team made a major announcement regarding the premiere date, and it confirms that fans won't have to wait until next year to watch the series. Waiting for Gyeongdo: Plot and main character details In Waiting for Gyeongdo, Park Seo Joon will star as Lee Gyeong Do, a hardworking and grounded entertainment reporter of Dongwoon Ilbo. His life will take a dramatic turn when he encounters his ex-girlfriend Seo Ji Woo, portrayed by Squid Game 2 fame Won Ji An. Seo Ji Woo appears to be the picture of perfection as the second daughter of Jarim Apparel, but her life is far from flawless. Behind her glamorous facade, she struggles with the imperfections that others don't see. Having just emerged from a messy divorce marred by her husband's cheating, Seo Ji Woo's world is turned upside down when she runs into Lee Gyeong Do again. Their reunion sets the stage for a complex exploration of their past and present relationships. Waiting for Gyeongdo: release date The rom-com drama is set to premiere in December 2025. This 12-episode show is directed by King the Land's filmmaker Im Hyun Wook and penned down by Yoo Young Ah. Waiting for Gyeongdo: Supporting cast The supporting cast of Waiting for Gyeongdo includes Lee El, Lee Joo Young, Kang Ki Doong, and Jo Min Kook. Lee El, known for her role in When the Stars Gossip, will play Seo Ji Yeon, the older sister of Seo Ji Woo and the CEO of Jarim Apparel. Lee Joo Young will take on the role of Park Se Young, a director of an art academy and a friend of Seo Ji Woo. Kang Ki Doong will play the character of Park Se Young's husband, Cha Woo Sik. Jo Min Kook will star as Lee Jeong Min, who runs a used car business.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Will Gong Yoo return in Squid Game Season 3? Here's why fans think The Recruiter might be alive in the final part
Squid Game Season 3: Ever since Gong Yoo's chilling role as The Recruiter in Squid Game, fans have gone bonkers with theories about his character appearing again in Season 3. Even though his character died in Season 2, an eagle-eyed clip of him briefly reopening his eyes sparked a wave of speculation. Now, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has hinted at exploring The Recruiter's backstory, hinting at either a comeback or even a full spin-off, leaving fans wondering: Is Gong Yoo really coming back? Squid Game season 3: Clues that fuelled Go Yoo's return rumour That blink in Season 2, Episode 2 quickly became one of the most talked-about moments among fans. Just as Gong Yoo's character, The Recruiter, is shown lying lifeless, his eye flickers open for a split second. It was easy to miss, but for those who caught it, the moment set off an avalanche of theories. Was it just a filming oversight? Or something far more deliberate? I knew The Salesman was alive 😂😂😂#SquidGame2 While casual viewers might dismiss it as a slip, long-time fans of Gong Yoo know better. He's not just any actor. He's known for being incredibly precise with his performances, often praised for how he uses subtle facial expressions to convey emotion or hidden intent. For someone with that level of control and experience, especially in a globally streamed Netflix series, the idea that such a moment was left in by accident feels unlikely to many. Creator confirms spin-off possibility In a big reveal, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk strongly hinted that Gong Yoo's character might return, just not necessarily in Season 3. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he teased a possible spin-off series focused solely on the recruiter's arc, separate from the main story's end. That strongly suggests The Recruiter didn't vanish from the Squid Game universe forever. "If the time comes, and it just so happens that I'm able to come up with a character or a different story, then maybe there might be a comeback. But I'm thinking more along the lines of a spinoff," he shared. With Squid Game Season 3 being the finale, what could happen? Squid Game Season 3 drops on June 27, 2025, with six episodes earmarked as the grand conclusion to Gi Hun's fight against the system and possibly his final clash with the Front Man. Though no official credit for Gong Yoo appears in current cast listings, Netflix Tudum's Season 3 cast guide hints The Recruiter could have 'a bigger part this season'. So… Will Gong Yoo Return in Squid Game Season 3? The answer: it's very possible, though the exact how remains uncertain. Given Hwang's openness about spin-off plans, Gong Yoo might reappear via flashbacks or hidden scenes. Even if he doesn't show up in this final season, the door is wide open for more from his iconic character. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Squid Game season 3 release date, cast and plot: a complete guide
Player 456 Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae, centre) hit rock bottom in Squid Game 2 after the mutiny he led was crushed and his best friend executed. In Season 3, fans want to see if the disillusioned man joins the dark side. PHOTO: NETFLIX Squid Game's final season arrives, and here is everything you need to know SINGAPORE – The third and final season of the South Korean survival thriller Squid Game will premiere on Netflix on June 27. Anticipation is sky-high. Netflix viewing records are likely to be broken, like with Season 2's debut. Over the past two seasons (2021 and 2024), show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has had viewers hooked, with relatable characters forced to make awful choices. Seasons 1 and 2 started with several hundred debt-ridden people drugged, and then waking up on a secret island. They accepted a mysterious invitation to be there, without being told the full, brutal details. On the island, they take part in children's games, with losers suffering lethal consequences. Often, the games involve players making choices that cause the death of others – with the killings sometimes meted out by pink-garbed guards or soldiers. The lone survivor walks away with a life-changing cash prize. A bleak critique of the dog-eat-dog system that rules most of the world, the game makes fathers choose to let others die so that their children can get medical treatment. It encourages the young and strong to abandon older, slower players to their fate. The series started a stampede for South Korean content on streaming platforms such as Prime Video and Disney+, aimed mainly at Western and Asian audiences, many of whom have been converted by Squid Game to the practice of reading subtitles. The show sparked global cosplay trends with green tracksuits that led to schools in New York in the US and Quebec in Canada banning the practice because of the series' violent themes. The scenes with dalgona candy inspired many to make it for themselves, leading to burn injuries in Australia suffered by those inexperienced in handling melted sugar. Squid Game 2 hit 68 million views globally on Netflix within 72 hours of its release on Dec 26, 2024. It broke the record for a series premiere set by the American comedy Wednesday (2022 to present), which drew 50.1 million views during its debut week in November 2022. Squid Game also reached the No. 1 spot on the most-viewed charts in 92 countries. Hwang, in an interview with entertainment site IndieWire, had said that if he were to make a spin-off, it would not be set after Season 3. 'I would want to show what the characters did during the three-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2,' he said. The series has helped alter global viewing patterns on Netflix. Since 2023, South Korean content has overtaken traditional sources Japan and the United Kingdom to claim second place in viewing hours, behind the leader, the US. Korean content now accounts for 9 per cent of total viewing hours on Netflix, behind US content's 58 per cent. The result is a windfall for production companies. Netflix intends to spend US$2.5 billion (S$3.2 billion) on original Korean shows from 2023 to 2027. Squid Game might be ending in 2025 – but cheer up, because other must-watch shows will come in its wake, triggering more trends in candy and cosplay. The story so far At the end of Season 2, the mutiny led by Player 456 Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) had been crushed, at the cost of lives on both the players' and soldiers' sides. The soldiers' leader, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), had sneaked into the game as Player 001. He later executed Gi-hun's best friend, the sweet-natured and loyal Park Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), to make a point about the futility of trying to change the system. Besides Jung-bae, characters killed in Season 2 include the vengeful bully Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun, also known as T.O.P.), stabbed by the former crypto YouTuber Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan) in a bathroom brawl. Choi Seung-hyun as the violent, vengeful Thanos in Squid Game 2. PHOTO: NETFLIX Characters still alive and in the game include the protagonist Gi-hun, the former Squid Game winner who fought to get back into the contest to burn it down; Myung-gi, the crypto scammer; Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), Myung-gi's former girlfriend who is pregnant with his child; Kang Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), the principled former marine who joins the rebellion and is presumed to have been captured by the guards; Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), who joined the game to get money for gender-reassignment surgery; and Park Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun) and his mother Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim). Yong-sik joined to get out of his gambling debts, while Geum-ja joined to help pay off his debts. Park Sung-hoon as the transgender player Cho Hyun-ju will return in Season 3. PHOTO: NETFLIX As hinted at in the Season 3 trailer, Park Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook) is still alive. The theme park artist, who joined the games to earn money for his daughter's cancer treatment, was shot by a guard during the revolt, but it appears that his wound was not fatal. There are six episodes, which is plenty of time for the interrupted contests to resume, introducing games that are likely to pose even more horrific moral choices for the players. Lee Jin-wook as Park Gyung-seok, the artist with a cancer-stricken daughter in Squid Game 2. PHOTO: NETFLIX Story threads to be resolved in Season 3 The fate of rebel leader Seong Gi-hun In Season 2, Gi-hun annoyed fans, who found him less interesting because he became a one-note obsessive consumed with the desire to tear down the game. His faith in Player 001 – the Front Man in disguise – was also argued about, because he seemed to have learnt nothing from the previous games about trusting too much. At the end of the season, Gi-hun was still unaware that Player 001 is a mole. Player 001, using the alias Oh Young-il, had joined the revolt so that he could subvert it. In an interview with Variety magazine, Hwang said that at the start of Season 3, Gi-hun would have lost everything. For joining the revolt out of a sense of loyalty to Gi-hun, his best friend Jung-bae was executed by the Front Man. Lee Jung-jae as returning player Seong Gi-hun and Lee Seo-hwan as his best friend Park Jung-bae in Squid Game 2. PHOTO: NETFLIX This comes after other failures, such as Gi-hun's attempts to persuade players to vote to leave the game, a campaign thwarted by their greed and desperation. Gi-hun has hit emotional rock bottom, said Hwang. 'Gi-hun will not be the man he was in Season 2. He will be at a critical crossroads,' he added. The questions that fans want answered include: How have Gi-hun's guilt and sense of failure affected his urge to destroy the game? Will he give up his mission because it has caused the deaths of so many for no gain? Or could a broken and disillusioned Gi-hun join the dark side? Detective Hwang Jun-ho and his brother, the Front Man Wi Ha-joon as detective Hwang Jun-ho, who continues in his search for his long-lost brother, Hwang In-ho, in Squid Game 3. PHOTO: NETFLIX In Season 2, detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) and former winning contestant Gi-hun t eamed up to look for the secret island where the games take place. But the game organisers were always one step ahead. They foiled the plan by removing the tracking chip from Gi-hun's tooth and booby-trapping decoy locations, killing one of Jun-ho's mercenaries. In the previous season, Jun-ho and his men were on board Captain Park's (Oh Dal-su) boat, searching for the island. The skipper has Jun-ho's trust. After all, he had plucked an injured Jun-ho from the sea after he was shot by his older brother, Hwang In-ho, the Front Man . Lee Byung-hun as the guard leader Hwang In-ho, in disguise as Player 001, in Squid Game 2. PHOTO: NETFLIX The brothers share a complicated history. Years ago, Jun-ho's illness caused In-ho to make sacrifices so big that he had nothing left for himself and his wife when they later found themselves in trouble. Out of desperation, In-ho participated in the games, leading to him eventually becoming the masked overseer . In the present day, the younger man is obsessed with finding his long-lost brother to offer him a way out, to ease his guilt at being the cause of In-ho's pivot towards evil. As it turns out, Jun-ho's sea rescue was no happy accident – it had been planned by his brother . In a show filled with character surprises, this was one of the biggest in Season 2: Captain Park is the Front Man's secret ally. The boat operator rescued the detective, earned his trust and is monitoring – and sabotaging – Jun-ho. In Season 3, fans will be looking forward to Jun-ho's unmasking of the traitorous captain. There is also Jun-ho's confrontation with In-ho and how it ties in with Gi-hun's post-rebellion journey. Gi-hun is a broken and defeated man, but Jun-ho's entry into the story could make all the difference. Kim Jun-hee's baby At the end of Season 2, the pregnant Jun-hee was still alive, along with Myung-gi , her former boyfriend and the father of her child. Myung-gi was a YouTuber who promoted a cryptocurrency that turned out to be a scam, bankrupting him and many others. Former crypto YouTuber Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan) in Squid Game 3. PHOTO: NETFLIX He was forced to ghost Jun-hee, he claims, to protect her from angry investors. His protectiveness towards her in Season 2 indicates he might be telling the truth, or at least as much truth as he is capable of telling. Fans will be curious to know if Season 3 will be the arc that redeems the blame-shifting dad-to-be, perhaps through an ultimate act of sacrifice to save Jun-hee and their unborn child. Or, he might shoulder his responsibilities as a father in scenes set after the birth. The fate of Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) and her unborn child hangs in the balance in Squid Game 3. PHOTO: NETFLIX In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, show creator Hwang teases the idea – one that is reinforced in a Season 3 trailer with the sound of a baby crying – that the newborn will be more important to the story than anyone imagines. He said: 'You have heard the baby crying in the trailer. The baby plays a very important role in Season 3, not just for Jun-hee, but also for the fate of everyone inside.' Kang Ha-neul in Squid Game 3 as the former marine Kang Dae-ho, who is presumed to have been captured by the guards. PHOTO: NETFLIX Kang No-eul, the stoic defector No character in Season 2 underwent as many transformations as No-eul (Park Gyu-young). She was, at first, a theme-park mascot actor who lived in her car. Then it emerged that the tight-lipped woman was a North Korean defector who left her infant child when she escaped to the South. After she got a Squid Game invitation card, viewers assumed she would be a participant, up to the point when she donned the pink uniform worn by enforcers of the games' brutal rules. She needs money to look for her daughter, but she has a conscience, opting to mercy-kill injured contestants instead of letting them be taken away for organ harvesting. Among the game participants, No-eul recognised fellow theme park co-worker Gyeong-seok, an artist who paints portraits for guests. She knew he was risking his life for his daughter's cancer treatment, and that caused her more emotional turmoil. Viewers last saw her as part of the armed force putting down Gi-hun's mutiny. Park Gyu-young plays the conflicted guard Kang No-eul in Squid Game 3. PHOTO: NETFLIX For Season 3, some are speculating that her story arc will cross with that of Gi-hun , making her his ally, perhaps to sabotage the Front Man's plans from within. She escaped tyranny in the North, only to be crushed under it again in the capitalist South, and her stoic reserve could finally crack under the pressure. Will she survive long enough to see her child again, or will she put Gyeong-seok and his daughter ahead of her own needs? Squid Game 3 premieres on Netflix on June 27. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Mint
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Squid Game actor Lee Byung-hun reveals how his son called him out for being 'bad' in the show: 'Why are you so mean?'
On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun had the audience in stitches as he shared how his ten-year-old son reacted to finding out his dad plays the terrifying Frontman in the hit Netflix series. 'They're not supposed to watch Squid Game,' Byung-hun said with a grin. 'I have a ten-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter. I think my son heard from a friend at school. One day, he looked really sad and asked me, 'Why are you so mean?'' Completely confused, Byung-hun replied, 'What?' Jimmy Fallon burst into laughter, jumping in to act out the moment: 'You know I'm an actor. I love you. I'm a good dad!' Byung-hun continued, 'I said, 'Why?' and he said, 'You killed a lot of people.'' It turns out, his son was especially upset about a scene involving T.O.P, the actor who played Thanos in 'Squid Game 2'. 'My son was very close to him,' Byung-hun explained. 'He asked me, 'Why did you hit him so bad, Dad?'' Trying to explain, Byung-hun told his son, 'I'm an actor,' but admitted, 'I think he doesn't understand 100 per cent.' Jimmy nodded and laughed, 'No, good for him. He should be a 10-year-old!' The laughs kept coming as Byung-hun shared a hilarious memory from when his son was just three years old. He had shown him a clip from GI Joe on YouTube, where Byung-hun plays a mysterious and deadly character. His son stared wide-eyed and asked, 'Are you really…?' To which Byung-hun whispered, 'Shhh, no one knows. Even your mom doesn't know.' The interrogation continued as the curious toddler asked, 'Where is the weapon?' Keeping the story alive, Byung-hun replied, 'It's in America, in some storage.' Not satisfied, his son asked, 'Why didn't you bring it back?' With perfect comic timing, Byung-hun answered, 'If I see some strong enemy, I'll bring it back.' The audience erupted in laughter, clearly loving the actor's playful parenting. For the unversed, Lee Byung-hun played the role of Storm Shadow in the 2013 film 'GI Joe: Retaliation'.
