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Final season premieres on June 27, 2025
Lee Jung-jae and Wi Ha-joon return
New rules, fresh players, deadly games
Netflix’s most-viewed series is ending with a bang. Squid Game, the South Korean survival thriller that rewrote the rules of global streaming success, will return with its third and last season on June 27, 2025.
With stakes high, new faces, and unsettled scores, the last chapter is likely to break rules once more, both of storytelling and viewership.
When Squid Game launched in 2021, it instantly intrigued the globe with its grim social critique and cold-blooded representation of desperation and survival. Now that its initial season was a hit and season two was released on December 26, 2024, the franchise will wrap up with Season 3, which heralds to explore deeper into the internal workings of the game and psychological trauma of the survivors.
Back for the finale is Lee Jung-jae reprising his role as Seong Gi-hun, or Player 456, whose traumatic victory in Season 1 turned his life from that of a desperate gambler to that of a man determined to uncover the dark apparatus behind the deadly game. Season 3 picks up from Season 2’s failed uprising and shocking death of Jung-bae, Gi-hun’s trusted ally. Season 3 finds the protagonist at his lowest ebb, but not one to give up yet, determined as ever to bring down the game from the inside.
Season 3 will have the return of most of its key characters. Lee Byung-hun returns as the sinister Front Man, a game winner-turned-gamekeeper whose sinister motives leave viewers guessing. Joining him is Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho, the detective thought to have been murdered in Season 1, but who now returns, set on locating his brother and the secret game island.
Rounding out the cast are new players who introduce new emotional investment to the survival game. Of particular interest are:
Jo Yu-ri as Jun-hee (Player 222), a pregnant woman who was coerced into playing under tragic circumstances.
Kang Ae-sim as Geum-ja (Player 149), a mother who participates in the contest for the sake of her family and financial woes.
Yang Dong-geun as Yong-sik, Geum-ja's son, hints that family relations will be an important part of the narrative.
Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, and Park Sung-hoon join the ensemble in roles not yet specified but presumably substantial.
Netflix’s official description says Season 3 adds a new layer of unpredictability to the already seemingly chaotic game format: a gumball machine that randomly places players on opposite sides. This should add further moral complexity and strategic play as allegiances are tried and treachery waits in the wings.
In the meantime, Gi-hun’s urge to infiltrate and dismantle the organization from the inside endangers him at all times, particularly with the resurrection of the Front Man and the ominous presence of the rich VIPs. Hwang Jun-ho, being oblivious to the fact that his brother has all but taken to his new role as the Front Man, continues his enquiry, while experiencing sabotage within his ranks.
To preserve narrative cohesion, director Hwang Dong-hyuk shot Seasons 2 and 3 consecutively. Season 3 will have six episodes, with a compact and focused narrative to conclude the sprawling spic.
Netflix dropped a teaser trailer on May 5, showing glimpses of familiar red-clad guards, new high-tech environments, and an increased psychological aspect to the gameplay. A complete trailer filled with all details is coming down sometime during Netflix’s Tudum 2025 global fan celebration on May 31.
With the last season looming, viewers are preparing for heartbreak, betrayal, and discoveries that will change the entire series. With issues of power, exploitation, and human spirit resilience remaining at its core, Squid Game Season 3 is set to go out in flames.
Better than a television program, Squid Game has become a cultural reference point, its costumes, metaphors, and messages resonating through political discourse, Halloween celebrations, and scholarly debates as well. As the show begins to wind down to its finale, anticipation runs high.
Will Gi-hun win by overthrowing the system? Will Jun-ho reveal the truth? And most of all, who will make it through the last game?
The responses start revealing themselves on June 27, 2025. For the audience across the globe, it will be a match worth watching till the very end.
