You wait three years for one Squid Game and then two come along at once (well, almost).
Squid Game season 3 is almost "done" ahead of the season 2 launch this Christmas, the show's creator has confirmed.
Fans are gearing up to re-enter the deadly competition on Boxing Day, when the next chapter drops on Netflix, which finds surviving champion Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) seeking revenge on his tormentors.
Netflix had previously announced that season 3 would be coming in 2025, and recent comments from creator Hwang Dong-hyuk suggest it could be even sooner than we thought.
The writer-director told The Hollywood Reporter that he is "nearly done with the editing portion of season 3", which means it could conceivably launch in spring or summer of 2025, although that's merely speculation for the time being.
The third season of Squid Game will be its last, with Hwang going on to explain why he decided to end his mega-hit there, as opposed to dragging it out across several more seasons.
"When I was thinking about the idea for the ending of season three, I think it sort of naturally came to me that this was the finale," he explained.
"I believed that with that story, I was able to tell everything that I wanted to tell through the story of Squid Game and also in the perspective of Gi-hun as a character, and I thought that we don’t need any further stories from here."
Hwang went on to describe the second season of the show as "crazy", with the recent trailer teasing the return of fan favourite game Red Light, Green Light and yet more anarchy in the walls of the Squid Game complex.
The creator described lead character Gi-hun as "broken" from the events of the first season, with actor Lee Jung-jae (The Acolyte) agreeing that fans should expect him to have been changed by his trauma.
"Gi-hun has experienced too many things, witnessed too many deaths, for him to return to the way it was before, no matter how hard he tries," he said (via THR).
"The way you see Gi-hun in season 1 and the state that you see him in in season 2 are very different."
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Squid Game season 2 premieres on Netflix on Thursday 26th December. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
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