Squid Game is back with a bang, with a new crop of contestants gearing up to take part in the deadly game.
Hwang Dong-hyuk’s thriller series returned to Netflix on 26 December for its second outing, three years after the phenomenal success of season one.
Series two, which has received a four-star review in The Independent, sees Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae reprise his role as Gi-hun, champion of the previous season’s tournament.
Determined to take down the games from the inside, Gi-hun finds himself back in the arena where he is one of 456 players hoping to emerge victorious – and alive.
For obvious reasons, there are few returning characters from season besides Gi-hun… and this many new faces is hard to keep track of, so it’s lucky that audiences don’t need to know every single one to follow the storyline.
There are, though, several characters who are integral to the plot of Squid Game – and therefore your enjoyment of the show.
We’ve rounded up a comprehensive who’s who in Squid Game season two to help…
WARNING: minor spoilers ahead for the first couple of episodes
Seong Gi-hun – Player 456
Gi-hun returns to Squid Game with a new haircut and an appetite for revenge. Although he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams, Gi-hun remains traumatised by his experiences of the games three years earlier. We learn that he has devoted his life (and his winnings) to trying to shut down Squid Game once and for all.
Hwang Jun-ho
Fans will remember Jun-ho as the detective who infiltrates the games in the hope of finding his lost brother In-ho. At the end of season one, however, he learns that In-ho is, in fact, the Front Man in charge of running the game. After a dramatic face-off on the edge of a cliff, In-ho shoots Jun-ho in the chest, apparently sending him falling to his death.
In season two, however, Jun-ho is seen to be alive and well, working as a traffic officer – having quit his job as a detective. We learn that in the years since he was shot, Jun-ho has been trying to find the island where the games take place.
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Hwang In-ho – The Front Man
Another familiar face (sort of) is the masked villain known as The Front Man who was revealed to be In-ho (Jun-ho’s brother) at the end of season one. In-ho has been working for the games since he himself won the tournament years ago, and following the death of creator Oh Il-nam, is now the head of the Squid Game.
Recruiter
Episode one gives viewers a closer look at the recruiter who enlisted Gi-hun into the games years ago. He is in charge of recruiting participants for the game, preying on vulnerable people who are down-on-their-luck.
Choi Woo-seok
A slightly buffoonish character, Woo-seok is part of the team that Gi-hun hires to help find the recruiter in the outside world. He works for Mr Kim, a former loan shark of Gi-hun, who is heading up the operation. Woo-seok becomes increasingly invested in finding the games, working together with Jun-ho on the outside.
No-eul
One of the first new faces we are introduced to is No-eul, a woman who works at an amusement park. We soon learn that she had fled from North Korea to South Korea, but in the process was separated from her young daughter. She pays investigators to look for her daughter but with no luck.
Desperate and in need of money, she turns to Squid Game where she is revealed not to be a contestant, but one of the pink guards. Through No-eul, viewers gain further insight into the behind-the-scenes workings of the games.
Park Jung-bae – Player 390
After reentering the games, Gi-hun is surprised to see his long-time friend and former co-worker Jung-bae is a fellow contestant. It is revealed that the pair used to gamble together at the race track, and that Jung-bae previously declined Gi-hun’s request for a loan prior to him entering the games. Jung-bae appeared briefly in season one.
Kim Jun-hee – Player 222
A young woman with an eyebrow piercing, Jun-hee is the strong silent type. Despite being heavily pregnant, she enters the games in the hopes of winning enough money to support her baby as a single mother, having made a series of bad investments due to the advice of crypto-currency influencer and fellow player in the games, Myung-gi.
Myung-gi – Player 333
A former cryptocurrency influencer, Myung-gi (who used to go by the name “Amazing Myung-gi”) lost all of his money – and that of his subscribers – after he convinced them to invest in a crypto coin called Dalmation. He disappeared soon after, and is wanted for fraud and for violating telecom and financial investment laws. Unlucky for him, a couple of his previous followers (including Jun-hee, Thanos, and Nam-gyu) are also in there with him and are looking to settle the score.
Choi Su-bong aka Thanos – Player 230
The purple-haired fledgling rapper was once semi-famous in Korea, before he lost all of his money through a cryptocurrency crash. An erratic character with a stash of pills hidden in his necklace, Thanos is played by real-life rapper Choi Seung-hyun, better known as TOP.
Nam-gyu – Player 124
Another of Myung-gi’s crypto victims is Nam-gyu, who quickly aligns himself with Thanos in the games.
Se-mi – Player 380
A player of little words, Se-mi works with both Min-su and Thanos throughout the games despite not exactly being friends with the pair.
Min-su – Player 125
Visibly rattled by the violence that surrounds him, Min-su finds himself part of Thanos’s gang alongside Se-mi and Nam-gyu.
Kang Dae-ho – Player 388
Gi-hun finds himself bonding with a small group of people, including Dae-ho who bonds with Jung-bae over the fact they were both in the marines.
Cho Hyun-ju – Player 120
Hyun-ju is a transgender woman who is hoping to make enough money to complete her transition process and begin a new life, having been ostracised by her family and friends in Korea.
The character is played by cisgender male actor Park Sung-hoon. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk previously told TV Guide that he had originally wanted to do an “authentic casting of a trans actor”.
“When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately in the Korean society currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking,” he told TV Guide.
Kim Young-mi – Player 095
It is painfully apparent that Young-mi regrets joining the games as soon as they begin. She becomes friends with Hyun-ju, Young-sik, and Geum-ja.
Park Young-sik – Player 007
Another contestant down on his luck is compulsive gambler Young-sik, who is devastated to find that his mother is also a participant in the games.
Jang Geum-ja – Player 149
Geum-ja joins the game in the hopes of winning enough money to pay off her son’s debts. Little does she know that her son, Yong-sik, also entered the games as Player 007.
Im Jeon-dae – Player 100
The player most in debt at the beginning of the games is Im Jeong-dae who is revealed to owe a staggering 10 billion won. Despite his losses, he remains a proud man and appears to be willing to do whatever it takes to win.
Gyung-seok – Player 246
Viewers first meet Gyung-seok outside of the games where he works as a caricaturist at the same amusement park where No-eul worked. We learn that he has a young daughter who urgently needs cancer treatment; he enters the game in order to pay for it. Working as one of the guards, No-eul recognises him from the themepark.
Hye-won – Player 196
A young woman in debt and to whom Thanos takes a particular liking early on.
Seon-nyeo – Player 044
With heavy eyeliner and a penchant for rambling about the heavens, Seon-nyeo is a shaman who claims to know the fates of some players.
