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Squid Game Season 2 Is Your Creepy Christmas Present This Year

Hello, dolly: The unnerving giant robot schoolgirl is back with more Red Light, Green Light -- but watch out for bees.

Headshot of Gael Cooper
Headshot of Gael Cooper
Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, and generational studies Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Ready to get back into the game?

 Netflix/Screenshot by CNET

Think of it as a creepy Christmas gift. On Dec. 26, Netflix is releasing the second season of Squid Game, the blockbuster South Korean drama that captivated audiences in 2021 with its disturbing tale of a tournament of children's games where the losers are killed. On Thursday -- Halloween, to boot -- the streaming service released a teaser highlighting the second season, and fans will feel right at home in the disturbing universe, as it looks pretty familiar.

The under-2-minute trailer offers a sneak peek back into the colorful world where players wear numbered green jumpsuits and the red-suited guards have eerie masks with shapes on them. Emmy-winning actor Lee Jung-jae returns as tournament winner Seong Gi-hun, apparently diving back into the deadly tourney three years after he won the huge monetary prize. If you watched the first season, you know he swore revenge on the game-makers, who include someone pretty close to him.

Read more: Squid Game on Netflix: Everything to Know About the Disturbing Breakout Hit

This isn't the first peek at Squid Game season 2. A 45-second teaser came out in September at Netflix's Geeked Week 2024 Live fan event. But this teaser is a little longer, and reveals that the creepy giant doll from Red Light, Green Light is there and ready to kill anyone who moves after they're supposed to in that old playground game. In the teaser, however, one contestant finds herself bothered by a bee, and, well, let's just say the doll has more of a sting. Thankfully, the teaser is keeping the other games under wraps, so perhaps there will be some new deadly challenges for our hapless, indebted contestants.

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Squid Game participants see this image when their photo is taken before the game starts. Smile, indeed. It may be your last.

 Netflix/Screenshot by CNET

Read more: Squid Game Season 2 Teaser Brings Gi-hun Back Into the Deadly Action

When Gi-hun tries to alert the players that death is their only way out, they grow suspicious of him -- why would he return to the game after taking all the cash? It doesn't look like he's going to have much luck convincing them to quit, and it's a good thing, because that would be a pretty short second season if he did.

Read more: Squid Game Season 1 Ending Explained

Squid Game season 2 premieres on Netflix on Dec. 26, and a third and final season is scheduled for 2025.