Everything we know about 'Squid Game' season 3, as Netflix shares the first teaser for the final season

Fans were surprised that season two ended so abruptly after seven episodes, when the first season had nine.

"Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Entertainment Weekly in December 2024 that seasons two and three were written as one story, but split up to accommodate all the episodes.

This is likely why the episode count is lower than the previous season.

Season two ended on a tragic cliffhanger, with the games' guards defeating Gi-hun's rebellion.

After finding himself competing in the deadly games again, Gi-hun persuades his fellow players to stage a rebellion against the guards, steal their weapons, and storm toward the command center.

This plan is foiled by a saboteur in Gi-hun's ranks: Hwang In-ho, the game's leader, who entered the competition as Player 001 to spy on Gi-hun.

In-ho splits the rebels, making them easier to defeat, and fakes his own death. After his guards crush the uprising, In-ho, hiding his identity behind a mask, kills Gi-hun's best friend right in front of Gi-hun.

Outside the games, Gi-hun recruited a group of people to help find the game's island to shut down the competition. The season finale shows that they have a traitor among them, too — Captain Park, a fisherman who owns the boat the team is using to find the island.

Season three will show the second half of the same competition, and the final attempt to destroy the games.

The teaser begins with the guards bringing a coffin containing Gi-hun into the contestants' sleeping area.

It seems the game makers are forcing Gi-hun to continue competing in the games as punishment for his rebellion. Later in the teaser, he is shown handcuffed as other players vote on whether to leave or stay, suggesting he can't vote.

The trailer doesn't clearly show what the next games will be, but one moment shows that the mom and son duo, Park Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun) and Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim), are on separate teams in one of the challenges, meaning they may compete against each other.

There are brief shots of the VIPs, the masked, rich people who fund the games and appeared in season one.

Outside the games, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), Gi-hun's ally, appears to have found the island where the games are taking place, which may mean he will be able to help put a stop to it.

The teaser ends with a baby crying after the screen goes black. One of the players, Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yuri), was pregnant in season two, so it may imply that she gives birth in the final season.

The most popular game among fans of "Squid Game" season one was "Red Light, Green Light," in which the players race to the finish line without being spotted by a giant rotating creepy doll.

The doll was based on a statue in South Korea of Young-hee, a character from old-school textbooks. In June 2022, Hwang said in a statement teasing the second season that the show will introduce Chul-su, a character often paired with Young-hee.

Though Hwang initially called the character "Cheol-su" in his statement, Netflix referred to him a "Chul-su" in a new Instagram post to tease season three.

Giant dolls of Chul-su and Young-hee appear in a post-credit scene in the season two finale. The scene seems to be teasing one of the game settings in season three, but it is not clear yet what the game will be.

Some fans have theorized that it could be "Jack and Jill," a board game where players use a die to race up a hill toward a finish line. Until now, all the games have been playground games, so a board game like "Jack and Jill" would be an outlier.

In December 2024, Hwang told Entertainment Weekly he decided to end the show after the third season because the story he is "capable of telling through Gi-hun" ends there.

He later told Variety that he was "sick" of making "Squid Game."

"I'm so sick of my life making something, promoting something," Hwang said. "I'm just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix."

Since Netflix owns the rights to "Squid Game," it could create more spin-offs without Hwang's involvement. It already has a reality show, "Squid Game: The Challenge," and the video game "Squid Game: Unleashed." Variety reported that Hwang has been kept in the loop about these projects but has not been involved with them.

This includes: Player 388, Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), the ex-marine; Player 222, Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), the pregnant woman; Player 007, Yon-sik (Yang Dong-geun) and his mother, Player 044, Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim); Player 044, Seon-nyeo (Chae Kook-hee), the mystical lady; and Player 120, Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), an ex-special forces officer.

Lee Jung-Jae and Lee Byung-hun will reprise their roles as the main protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, and the antagonist, Hwang In-ho. Other non-player characters who are still alive at the end of season two will also return, including former Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) and Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho).