Squid Game 3: Recap for final round

Fans of the K-drama eagerly await more thrills and twists as the series' last installment is likely to pose more horrific moral choices to the relatable characters

- John Lui

The third and final season of the South Korean survival thriller Squid Game will premiere on Netflix on June 27.

Anticipation is sky-high. Netflix viewing records are likely to be broken, like with Season 2's debut.

Over the past two seasons (2021 and 2024), show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has had viewers hooked, with relatable characters forced to make awful choices.

Seasons 1 and 2 started with several hundred debt-ridden people drugged, and then waking up on a secret island. They accepted a mysterious invitation to be there, without being told the full, brutal details.

On the island, they take part in children's games, with losers suffering lethal consequences. Often, the games involve players making choices that cause the death of others—with the killings sometimes meted out by pink-garbed guards or soldiers.

The lone survivor walks away with a life-changing cash prize.

Transgender player Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) will return.

A bleak critique of the dog-eat-dog system that rules most of the world, the game makes fathers choose to let others die so that their children can get medical treatment. It encourages the young and strong to abandon older, slower players to their fate.

The series started a stampede for South Korean content on streaming platforms such as Prime Video and Disney+, aimed mainly at Western and Asian audiences, many of whom have been converted by Squid Game to the practice of reading subtitles.

The show sparked global cosplay trends with green tracksuits that led to schools in New York in the US and Quebec in Canada banning the practice because of the series' violent themes. The scenes with dalgona candy inspired many to make it for themselves, leading to burn injuries in Australia suffered by those inexperienced in handling melted sugar.