Warning: This article includes some major spoilers from the second season of Netflix’s “Squid Game.”
While the identity of the Front Man, the biggest villain in “Squid Game,” was finally revealed at the end of the hit Netflix show’s first season, his shocking backstory gets unmasked in the upcoming second season.
Lee Byung-hun — who returns as the Front Man who runs the twisted games in the new season premiering Dec. 26 — told NBC News that his character is more complex than what fans were initially shown. The Front Man, whose name is In-ho, harbors a painful past that includes the death of his wife and mounting medical debt. With this plotline, Lee said, he hopes to show how his character became an “extreme pessimist.”
“As an actor, what was really most important to me was being able to tell the story of the Front Man’s past,” Lee said in Korean through a translator. “He is someone who believes that there is no hope left in the world, who believes that there is an absolute absence of humanity.”
The upcoming season revolves around Gi-hun, or Player 456, as he chooses to re-enter the game three years after having already been crowned the winner. This time, Gi-hun is bent on putting an end to the murderous contest and protecting his fellow players. But, unbeknownst to the contestants, the Front Man, a former winner of the game who went on to run the horrific experiment, has disguised himself as Player 001. And he’s covertly ensuring that the game plays on.
In one scene where he shares a moment with Gi-hun and the other competitors, Player 001 tells them that his wife has acute cirrhosis and is in need of a liver transplant. She’s also pregnant. And while the doctor suggested she terminate the pregnancy, she refused. As the couple struggled to find a donor, he tells the group, he borrowed as much money as he could, but it wasn’t enough.
“Then one of my oldest vendors heard about my situation and offered to help. But people saw it as a bribe. I got fired from my job. I had devoted my entire youth to it. These games were my last hope,” he said. “I really need that money, even if it’s blood money, to save my wife and our child.”
But the Front Man’s alter-ego isn’t all made up, Lee said. And in an earlier episode, In-ho’s brother, police officer Jun-ho, is seen visiting the grave of In-ho’s late wife.
“The fake persona that he assumes in the game — it’s actually his own story,” Lee said of the series of devastating events that led to the Front Man’s rise.
Despite the twisted nature of his character, and the dark themes of the series that prompt questions around humanity and inequality, Lee said he personally continues to resist pessimism.
“When we go through our daily lives, despite the many disappointments that we experience … what allows us to live day by day is that small slice of hope that we carry within us,” Lee said. “‘Squid Game,’ while it is a very condensed version of the reality that we live in, it’s a very extreme version that reflects the dark side of the world.”
The second season of the Netflix series follows the wildly popular first one, which became the platform’s most watched show of all time, accruing 1.65 billion hours streamed in the first four weeks of its debut in 2021. The new season has already snagged a Golden Globe nomination for best drama series. But director Hwang Dong-hyuk said that making the show was no easier the second time around.
“Because Season 1 was so globally loved, when it was decided that there was going to be a second season, it’s true that I felt a huge amount of pressure,” Hwang said. “So many people out there were saying, ‘Season 1 was perfect. Why don’t you just end it with Season 1?’”
Hwang said he ended up using the chatter as a “creative catalyst.”
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