Making Season 2: Squid Game-

“We were sleep-deprived, under pressure, and every day felt like elimination,” joked actor Kang Ha-neul, who plays a conflicted debt collector. “Director Hwang would call ‘cut’ and we’d all laugh nervously because it felt too real.” Composer Jung Jae-il returned to score Season 2, but with a darker, more fractured sound. He replaced some of the whimsical children’s song motifs with industrial percussion and distorted classical strings. The iconic “Way Back Then” theme is now heard only in fragments, symbolizing Gi-hun’s shattered innocence.

The most significant challenge was casting the new batch of players. Over 2,000 extras were put through a mock “recruitment” process to find faces that could convey desperation, cunning, and moral ambiguity. Notable additions include Yim Si-wan as a charismatic cult leader, and Park Gyu-young as a North Korean defector whose survival skills rival those of Season 1’s Sae-byeok. Ironically, the production itself mirrored the show’s themes. A tight 11-month shooting schedule meant the cast and crew worked 14-hour days, six days a week. On one night shoot for a “Mingle” game (where players must form groups before a timer runs out), a malfunctioning platform prop injured three stunt performers, leading to a two-week shutdown and an overhaul of safety protocols. Squid Game- Making Season 2

“I realized that Gi-hun’s journey is not about revenge, but about exposure,” Hwang explained in a behind-the-scenes feature. “Season 2 asks: what happens when one person knows the truth and decides to tear the system down from the outside?” “We were sleep-deprived, under pressure, and every day

The production team built five new game sets from scratch, each requiring months of safety testing. Because the show’s signature is practical, visceral effects, the crew used minimal CGI for the deaths. Instead, they employed squibs, hydraulic traps, and hidden air cannons to achieve the bloody, shocking realism that made the first season so gripping. Lee Jung-jae returned as Gi-hun, but this time, his character is no longer the naive gambler. To prepare, Lee spent months training in tactical combat and firearms handling, as Gi-hun’s arc shifts from player to infiltrator. Alongside him, Lee Byung-hun reprised his role as the Front Man, whose backstory is explored in flashback-heavy sequences shot on a separate soundstage. The iconic “Way Back Then” theme is now

The season premiered on Netflix in December 2024, breaking its own records within the first weekend. Love it or hate it, one thing is certain: the making of Squid Game Season 2 was, in every sense, a game of survival.