Squid Game season 3 is finally here. That means, four years after the show took over the world in 2021, we finally know the fate of Player 456, the Front Man, and those sadistic games themselves.
Below, we've got everything you need to know about Squid Game season 3, from a rundown of the cast, details on all the trailers, and an overview of the plot. Naturally, that means there are major spoilers ahead for season 3 and the ending, so turn back now if you're not up to date.
This is Netflix's most popular show ever, and a huge cultural phenomenon in its own right, so it's well worth getting up to date on one of Netflix's best shows. For even more, check out our full guide to the Squid Game season 3 ending explained or our roundup of the most exciting upcoming TV shows.
Squid Game season 3 release date
Squid Game season 3 released on June 27, 2025. That's the same as the accidentally leaked date that surfaced earlier in the year.
Surprisingly, this was just a few months after season 2 was released, so there wasn't long to wait for the return of Netflix's most popular show.
Squid Game season 3 trailer
The final Squid Game season 3 trailer looked back at the previous seasons, remembering the journey of Seong Gi-hun, AKA Player 456, from the financial problems that led him into the games to his return to burn it all to the ground. The trailer revealed a meeting between Gi-hun and the big boss, Front Man, too.
A first full trailer arrived at Tudum. This one showed more of the maze game, and it also finally revealed the nature of the game involving the two giant dolls seen in the Squid Game season 2 post-credits scene. But, there was nothing at all on the sixth and final game, though the trailer confirmed that Gi-hun would be a finalist. It also confirmed that Player 246 survived with help from Guard 011. Check it out below:
Squid Game season 3 plot *SPOILERS*
The Squid Game season 3 plot is as unpredictable and heartbreaking as ever. Now, this is your final spoiler warning. Turn back now if you don't want to know everything!
If you're still reading, then let's get into it. The first game of the season is a twisted version of Hide and Seek, with the players divided into two teams of red and blue. Team Red is armed with a knife and tasked with killing a player on the opposing team to survive. Team Blue just have to survive the next 30 minutes, and they're given keys to help them unlock doors and hide. In this game, Player 456 murders Dae-ho (Player 388) in a grief-fuelled rage after Dae-ho failed to return with ammo during the rebellion. Myung-gi (333) murders Hyun-ju (120), despite having already passed the game. The Shaman (044) is killed by Min-su (125), and Yong-sik (007) is killed by his own mother Geum-ja (149) after he tries to kill Jun-hee (222). Crucially, in this game, Jun-hee gives birth to her baby. It's a girl!
In between games, Geum-ja dies by suicide after killing her son. The next game is Jump Rope, in which players must cross a narrow bridge while, you guessed it, jumping over a big swinging rope. This was first teased in the season 2 post-credits scene. In this game, Gi-hun escorts Jun-hee's baby safely across after the VIPs decide the infant should be added to the game. But, Nam-gyu (124) is killed, and Jun-hee, who sprained her ankle in the previous game, jumps to her death rather than attempt the game. The Front Man decides her baby will take her place as Player 222.
After this, the Front Man calls Gi-hun for a face to face meeting and offers him a knife to kill the other finalists in their sleep, after they vote to continue the game. Gi-hun considers it, but he can't go through with it after an emotional flashback to Sae-byeok telling him "you're not that kind of person" in season 1. But, he does keep hold of the knife.
The final game is called Squid Game in the Sky, and players must push at least one person to their death per round from a tall structure: one shaped like a square, one a triangle, and one a circle. In the first round, Min-su is pushed from the edge. In the second round, the finalists fail to separate Gi-hun and Baby 222, and Myung-gi, the baby's father, turns on them. He teams up with Gi-hun and in the ensuing fight, all the other finalists but them end up dead. That means one of them has to die in the final round.
Myung-gi turns very quickly on both of them and demands the baby, planning to throw her to her death and win the game for himself. Gi-hun, who has protected the infant all this time, fights back. Myung-gi ends up falling in the struggle, but, sadly, neither of them actually pushed the start button. Gi-hun pushes it and chooses to sacrifice himself for the baby, leaving her the winner.
Meanwhile, Guard 011 has successfully saved Player 246's life and smuggled him to freedom, and, after witnessing Gi-hun's sacrifice, she chooses to live too and escapes the island.
Detective Jun-ho has also been on quite the adventure, with Captain Park outed as a traitor, and almost all of his mercenary team killed. The coast guard is called to help Player 246, which means that the Front Man initiates a self-destruct protocol and the entire island evacuates. Jun-ho arrives too late to speak to his brother. The facility explodes, ending the Korean games for good – we see the flames of the burning facility in Gi-hun's open eyes. He achieved his goal of ending the games after all.
Six months later, the Front Man delivers Baby 222 and her winnings to Jun-ho, then travels to LA to give Gi-hun's daughter what remains of his fortune and his bloodied player jacket. He then, from the back of his car, watches a recruiter played by Cate Blanchett in a surprise cameo playing ddakji with a man in an alleyway. The duo share a significant look, and that's the end of Squid Game.
Interestingly, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has previously shared that he changed his mind over the ending. "Usually when I get to writing a script, I do it where I think of the ending first, and then I try to make the journey, or the path to reach that ending the most entertaining way possible," he said to GamesRadar+ and other media at a roundtable. "But this time around, it was actually different. I started out writing the story thinking of a particular ending, but along the way, I realised that this is not where the story should be headed, so I changed the ending mid-process."
Squid Game season 3 reviews
Our own Squid Game season 3 review gives the show five stars, with our reviewer writing: "A staggeringly excellent final season with pulse-pounding games, heartbreaking character moments, phenomenal performances from the entire cast, and a storyline utterly unafraid to take huge, bold swings. Squid Game season 3 can count itself a winner."
At the time of writing, the show stands at a very healthy 90% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with 20 reviews. We can expect that to fluctuate as more come in, however.
Squid Game season 3 cast
As is expected with Squid Game, there were a lot of deaths in season 2. This means the cast list for season 3 is much smaller than the second outing:
- Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
- Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
- Lee Byung-hun as Hwang In-ho/the Front Man
- Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-ju
- Kang Ha-neul as Dae-ho
- Jo Yu-ri as Kim Jun-hee
- Park Gyu-young as No-eul
- Chae Kook-hee as Seon-nyeo
- Lee David as Min-su
- Kang Ae-sim as Jang Geum-ja
- Yang Dong-geun as Park Yong-sik
- Im Si-wan as Lee Myung-gi
- Oh Dal-su as the Captain
- Roh Jae-won as Nam-gyu
Is Squid Game season 3 the final season?
Yes, Squid Game season 3 is the final season of the Netflix show. Speaking about this decision, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told GamesRadar+ and other media why this is. "When you look at Squid Game at the end of the day, it's really all about Gi-hun's journey. The way he returned and gave up wanting to go see his daughter, returned from the flight and goes back into the game, wanting to put an end to it.
"So, the storylines for seasons 2 and 3 are going to be about his journey and the viewers wanting to know, 'Will he succeed, will he fail?' And at the end of his journey, what would Gi-hun look like? So, at the end of the day, it's really a story told by Gi-hun, and it's a story of Gi-hun and also what changes he goes through as a character through these series of events. So I always thought that it had to be, it had to come to a closure with Gi-hun's story by season 3. I thought that it would be meaningless to tell a story further than that."
However, the ending does seem to set up a spin-off, potentially the show set in the US rumored to be in development from David Fincher. Watch this space.
Squid Game season 3 is available to stream on Netflix now. For even more on the show, check out our Squid Game season 2 review. We've also got guides to the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix horror movies to stream right now.
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