Squid Game's American Spinoff Is Bad News For Lee Jung-Jae's Gi-Hun

A new Squid Game series set in the United States is on the way, but this may have some unfortunate implications regarding Gi-hun’s story. Netflix announced that the new spinoff would be scripted in English and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club). This is undoubtedly exciting and seems to confirm some theories that evolved following Squid Game season 1’s release in 2021. However, this news is a bit more concerning when considering the trajectory of Lee Jung-Jae’s Squid Game character going into season 2.




Squid Game took the world by storm with its first season, solidifying itself as one of the few foreign-language series on Netflix to gain prominence in the United States. It’s been a few years since the brutal and thematically striking series dropped, but creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has remained steadfast in his promise that more is on the way. Squid Game season 2 should see Lee Jung-Jae’s Gi-hun attempt to put an end to the brutal competition that changed his life, but it’s currently unclear how he could possibly manage this. Since a new international Squid Game series is in the works, however, it seems he won’t.


An International Spinoff Implies That The “Squid Games” Will Be Too Much For Gi-Hun To Tackle

Gi-Hun Probably Won’t Achieve His Goal To Take Down The Games


The VIPS of Squid Game, who each came from a different country around the world, inspired the theory that these terrible games are an international event. One of the VIPs in season 1 specified that the “Korean games” were especially good that year, implying that the various involved countries took turns hosting. Fincher’s American Squid Game series seems to confirm this, and it can be assumed that the English series will be set in the United States. Of course, if this story takes place following Gi-hun’s story, this would mean that this character is doomed to fail in his attempt to take down the operation.

Squid Game Never Set Up A Happy Ending For Gi-Hun

Gi-Hun Is Unlikely To Survive The Games Twice


Gi-hun was clearly determined at the end of Squid Game season 1 to put a stop to these terrible games. He was willing to walk away from his life to head back into the fray despite the fact that he had managed to be the only person to survive the first time around. While audiences will most certainly root for Gi-hun in Squid Game season 2, it would be no huge surprise if he didn’t succeed. This dark, gritty, and disturbing Netflix show has never been about happy endings. Instead, Squid Games explores the desperate measures a person will take to secure even the most unlikely chance at wealth and security.

If the games truly are international, with contestants from every country competing in their own dark Olympics every year, then the major lesson of Squid Game may not be one of hope.


Gi-hun surviving Squid Game season 1 was already a miracle. Now that this character is turning his efforts to take down a corrupt system, he’s even more likely to fail than before. The terrible truth is likely that the ugliness created by old man Oh Il-nam runs too deep to interrupt. If the games truly are international, with contestants from every country competing in their own dark Olympics every year, then the major lesson of Squid Game may not be one of hope. Otherwise, there would be no real need for the franchise to expand.

The US Squid Game Spinoff Could Be A Reboot (But That’s Still A Problem For The Original Series)

An English-Language Reboot Would Be Needless

Masked guards in pink suits in Squid Game season 2

Of course, the new US-based Squid Game series may be intended as an English-language reboot rather than a sequel or traditional spinoff. Fincher may hope to repeat the same concept and story but with American characters playing children’s games more typical to a US playground. This would mean the new series would not risk spoiling the story of Hwang’s series in any way. However, a reboot would present various other problems instead and would, in truth, be a waste of time and money for Fincher and Netflix.


There is currently no estimated release year for Fincher’s new
Squid Game
series.

Even as a non-English series, Squid Game was a smash hit in the United States. It would make sense for Netflix to reboot the series in English in hopes of bringing an unfamiliar Korean story to new audiences, but the US has already proven that they will watch Squid Game, regardless of the language and setting.It seems far more likely that Fincher’s new Squid Game series is a spinoff that would further explore the broader world that Hwang establishedโ€”even if such a series may subtly hint at what could go wrong with the original series’ tragic protagonist.


Squid Game The Challenge

Release Date
November 22, 2023

Seasons
1