Squid Game’s second season will land on Netflix this year

Despite Netflix and MrBeast’s best efforts to take the sting out of Squid Game, the original Korean series will finally return to the streamer this year. Per Variety, Netflix announced the second season of their 2021 Emmy winner in a letter to shareholders today.

Squid Game was a monster hit for Netflix, securing 14 Emmy nominations and winning six. Netflix called it the “biggest ever series launch,” attracting 111 million viewers (by Netflix’s count) in its first three weeks, thanks primarily to word of mouth, upending the industry’s treatment of non-English language TV series. Though its message, like many works of satirical fiction before it, from iRobot to Soylent Green, the dystopic setting was defanged through misuse.

The need for new Squid Game episodes made it easy for Netflix to gum up the satirical works with an unscripted game show based on the challenges from the show. Of course, in the hands of creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, the idea of contestants fighting to the death for financial reward is not an aspirational thing. As he put it, “People are attracted by the irony that hopeless grownups risk their lives to win a kids’ game,” which can easily translate to real life. Who wouldn’t want to see financially desperate people risking their lives for a fortune? It’s the sort of thinking that leads to a show like Paid Off. As if we needed more proof, MrBeast spent more than $2 million bringing his frozen YouTube grin to a version of the game. Netflix also announced that a video game version of Squid Game is coming. Does all this dull the effect of the original show? Probably. But when there’s a good idea for a game show just sitting there, someone’s got to pick it up. How else can we explain the two versions of Sex Box?