Thousands of followers gathered in Seoul on Saturday to rejoice the ultimate “Squid Game” season, ending a world Netflix hit that’s seen as a logo of South Korea’s cultural clout.
The third and remaining season was launched Friday, concluding the sequence that sees determined folks compete in lethal variations of conventional youngsters’s video games for an enormous money prize.
Director Hwang Dong-hyuk stated he had “poured everything” into the sequence, which launched almost 4 years in the past.
“So while it’s sentimental to see it end,” he stated, “there’s also a sense of relief”.
Fans gathered close to Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace, led by marchers dressed within the shiny pink uniforms worn by the present’s mysterious masked brokers.
They have been adopted by others carrying oversize toys from one of many video games featured within the sequence, together with the present’s flag.
Park Sang-gyu, a fan who stayed up all night time watching the ultimate season, stated the dystopian drama was “ultimately a story about people”.
“As you watch, you realise it’s not just about the games — it reflects many aspects of real life.”
The partitions of the Seoul Metropolitan Library have been lit up with key scenes, together with Young-hee — the enormous motion-sensing animatronic doll featured in considered one of its brutal video games.
Lee Byung-hun, who performed the masked Front Man overseeing the competitors, stated the present had change into “something of a cultural phenomenon”.
“One that has drawn one of the boldest lines in the history of Korean content,” he stated.
The first two seasons of the sequence are amongst Netflix’s most-watched reveals, and in 2022, Hwang and the present’s main actor, Lee Jung-jae, turned the primary Asian males to win Emmy Awards.
The remaining season follows its hero Gi-hun, performed by Lee, as he returns to the ultra-violent video games to dismantle them from inside after surviving the primary spherical.
Along with filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning 2019 thriller “Parasite” and Ok-pop sensation BTS, “Squid Game” is taken into account one of the crucial highly effective examples of South Korea’s rise as a world cultural pressure.
© 2025 AFP