‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Jung-jae Initially Wondered if Season 3 Was the Best Ending for Gi-hun
Spoilers ahead for “Squid Game” Season 3
Lee Jung-jae had the same reaction as nearly every fan of “Squid Game” when he learned about Gi-hun’s death.
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AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R15ekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R25ekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe“I was also very shocked myself when I first found out. I spoke a lot with the director about ‘Is this really the best ending for it?'” Lee told TheWrap.
When asked what those conversations looked like, Lee emphasized that “Squid Game” was originally intended to be a one season show. The series’ creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk only returned to make Seasons 2 and 3 because of the resounding popularity of the first installment.
“While Gi-hun’s death is indeed heartbreaking, I believe director Hwang wished that it would seem to convey a sense of hope to the audience as well,” Lee said.
“I think that if Season 1 hadn’t been such a huge success or if circumstances were different, I might have given more input. I might have been more almost aggressive in my discussions with the director in terms of my ideas,” he said. “But seeing the amount of support and trust that everyone has in director Hwang as a creator and in his vision, I was also coming from a place where I just wanted to fully support director Hwang’s vision. I thought that him telling this story in his own way — the way he wants to tell it — was the way to go and was the right approach for ‘Squid Game.'”
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R1bekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R2bekkr8lb2m7nfddbH1» iframeTrue to the tone of this dystopian thriller, “Squid Game” ends on a depressing twist. But as Lee noted, there’s also a degree of hope to it. After spending a fourth of the competition protecting Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) baby, Gi-hun is forced to make an impossible choice in the final moments of Season 3. He can either kill this innocent child and win the game again or sacrifice himself. He chooses to do the latter, but in his final moments he turns to face the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and billionaires watching him.
“We are not horses. We are humans,” Gi-hun says, calling back to a conversation he previously had with the Front Man. “Humans are” he says before his voice trails off. That last line was intentionally left unfinished to encourage audiences to think about what it means to them.
“If that line had been finished, obviously it would have been a more overt way of expressing [Hwang’s] beliefs and what he wanted to say. But I believe that with ‘Squid Game,’ we’ve always been with the fans,” Lee said. “That also is partly the meaning behind [the line]. The audience is capable of finishing that sentence with their own emotions and with their own interpretation.”
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