Actor Lee Jung-jae, widely known for playing the main character Seong Gi-hun in the hugely popular Netflix series ‘Squid Game’, spoke about the plotline of a potential season two.
Though Netflix is yet to officially greenlight a second season of the Korean survival thriller, Jung-jae told People magazine in this week’s issue that he feels more episodes are on the cards, especially considering the show’s success and its open-ended season one finale.
“A second season has become inevitable in a way,” he said. “I remember when we were shooting, I asked [creator Hwang Dong-hyuk] if there’d be a second season, and he said, ‘I don’t think so. That’s going to be very difficult.’ But we can’t not do one now, because we’ve received so much love all across the world.”
While Jung-jae said that the show creator has only just started planning what’s next — Hwang said in a recent interview that he’s currently “in talks” with Netflix for two more seasons — the 49-year-old actor is hoping for a plot that keeps the audience on its toes.
“I hope there’s some sort of twist that’ll be exciting and surprising for me and the viewers,” Jung-jae said. “If it was predictable, it would be no fun.”
Jung-jae, a longtime major movie star in South Korea, plays the role of Seong Gi-hun, a cash-strapped gambling addict and father recruited to play a mysterious, deadly series of children’s games in exchange for a prize worth millions.
Season one ended with Gi-hun seemingly ready to return to the arena he previously conquered in the name of revenge — and according to Jung-jae, that’s about all that’s certain.
“I have no idea what will happen or the scale of it, but the only thing [Hwang] did tell me was that Seong Gi-hun is going to be in the show again, and he’s going to be playing in the arena again,” he said.
Following the show’s premiere in September, it enjoyed a record-breaking rise in popularity and was watched by 142 million households around the world.
Jung-jae said he “never expected” the crazy success of ‘Squid Game’, though he admitted he knew early on that he was a part of something special.
“On the first day when we were shooting red light, green light, I saw the gigantic Young-hee robot and 456 people in green sweats running for their lives and I suddenly got the feeling that it was going to be very big,” he recalled.
“So I went and told [Hwang] and the crew, ‘I think this is going to be really popular. You should make a theme park right now, you should make sure that that robot’s there, and people could play the six games that are in this show,” he said.
Lee further said that he and his co-stars stay connected with a group chat, though they haven’t had the chance to see each other in person as much as they’d like due to logistics and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I hope that when all of this is over, we can meet up again and eat, have a meal together, and talk about how life has been for each of us,” he said.
