The third season of the Korean drama series Squid Game may feature actor Leonardo DiCaprio, according to Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk. Hwang expressed his optimism for the success of the upcoming season after it was revealed that the budget for season two had been boosted. Hollywood stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, may appear in a potential third season of Squid Game even though Hwang had no intention of adding them in the second season.
Hwang admitted as much in a post-Emmy news conference, which a recent Deadline piece corroborated, but added that if a third season was approved by Netflix, it would “probably alter.” DiCaprio, who previously joked with Hwang about joining the series, might be one of these actors. Hwang revealed that DiCaprio has “stated he is a big fan many times” and suggested that “maybe if time allows and if chances allow we should ask him to join the game.”
Hwang also disclosed during the same conference that the funding for the second season, which he is presently writing, has increased. The second season of Squid Game will start filming the following year, with a projected air date of 2024. Hwang has already decided which games will appear in the follow-up, but he won’t say which ones. In season one, each episode featured a dark twist on a kid-friendly game, such as “red light, green light” and “tug-of-war.”
Netflix has also boosted the budget for the second season; the first season reportedly cost $21.4 million, according to a Bloomberg piece. Hwang said, “I beg you not to write articles about the games because the audience needs to feel the suspense and thrill of what’s coming next,” Hwang urged in the event the games were made known before the show aired. He then added, “If I get too drunk and babble, I ask you to suffocate me to stop me from giving spoilers.”
Hwang and returning lead actor Lee Jung-jae have expressed both their apprehension and hope for the new season of Squid Game in light of the show’s tremendous popularity in its first season. The original series, which received 1.54 billion hours of viewing in just twenty days, not only became Netflix’s all-time most-watched series but also the first foreign-language series be nominated for a Best Drama Emmy. In addition, the series inspired the creation of a reality spin-off series with the working title Squid Game: The Challenge, which will debut in September 2021.