'Squid Game' Season 2 finale: Who's that other doll?
Squid Game Season 2 may have ended on a brutal cliffhanger, but fret not! The show's third and final season is confirmed for a 2025 release — and the Season 2 finale even includes a post-credits scene to hint at what's coming next.
After Seong Gi-hun's (Lee Jung-jae, The Acolyte) rebellion against the games fails, Squid Game moves to a mysterious look at Season 3. In the sneak peek, three players — 096, 100, and 353, none of whom are in the core cast of the season — walk into a new game room. There, they come across a familiar face: Young-hee, the giant animatronic doll from the "Red Light, Green Light" game.
But Young-hee is not alone. As if one scary doll wasn't enough, we now have two scary dolls to contend with! Young-hee is facing another massive animatronic doll, this one a little boy in a cap. Who is he, and how does he figure into Season 3? Luckily, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has already given us the answer.
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Who is the little boy doll in the Squid Game Season 2 finale?
The answer comes from a letter Hwang wrote to fans all the way back in June 2022, as part of Squid Game's renewal announcement. In it, he teases the return of Gi-hun, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), and even the suit-wearing recruiter (Gong Yoo). However, the most interesting tidbit comes at the very end of the letter.
"You’ll also be introduced to Young-hee’s boyfriend, Cheol-su," Hwang wrote.
Since there are no other animatronic dolls on the scene for Young-hee to hang out with, it's pretty clear that the doll we meet in Season 2's post-credits scene is Cheol-su.
(If you think it's confusing that Hwang would tease Cheol-su in a Season 2 announcement, only for him to barely appear in the season, you'd be right! According to Entertainment Weekly, Hwang originally envisioned Seasons 2 and 3 of Squid Game as one long season. The split must have come after the writing of the letter, which is why Cheol-su hasn't gotten his moment in the spotlight... yet.)
So now that we know what the deal with Cheol-su is, the real question becomes: What twisted game are he and Young-hee going to force our players into?
The post-credits scene shows a train signal flashing from red to green, which could imply that this game will be another version of "Red Light, Green Light." The train angle suggests a twist, though. Maybe the surviving players will have to play out some real-life trolley problems. The horror!
Squid Game Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
