Wild Mass Guessing pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
In the next season, one of the VIPs will get bored of watching the games, and decide to engage some of the contestants in Hunting the Most Dangerous Game.
- This will allow one of the main characters to survive the game early and have an outside plot line similar to Hwang Jun-ho side plot.
Future games
- Musical chairs - it's certainly chaotic enough.
- Hide and Seek - seekers handed weapons and needing to find the hiders before they themselves are killed.
- Sardines - there's only one safe place for everyone to hide, and the last people remaining are killed.
- The Floor is Lava, with electricity, acid or good old fashioned lead.
- Or if you want to take it to the most literal degree, actual lava.
- Maybe a card game like Go Fish, or the mentioned card games as seen below.
- Laser Tag - except the guns are real.
- Freeze Tag- Similar to Red Light Green Light only there's a time limit to save frozen players. (Gi-hun even brought this one up).
- Capture the Flag - except you can actually kill people.
- British Bulldog - except the "bulldogs" violently tackle and murder those they tag, as opposed to only violently tackling them.
- Horse - or at least what the Korean translation of horse is. After every letter is on the board, the losing player is shot.
- Will this include shooting a basketball at a random position to get a letter? What happens if the player misses his shot?
- Knockout- Anyone who gets "out" is shot until one person remains.
- Chess or it's Korean equivalent, Janggi.
- Simon Says - like Red Light, Green Light it could eliminate a lot of players in one round.
- Hopscotch, Jump-Rope, or another game that's traditionally played by girls. (Gi-hun brought up elastics as an option where having a woman would be better for their team.)
- Dungeons & Dragons, permadeath takes on an extra meaning.
- And not to mention the countless arguing and debating between players over their character's stats and who the DM is, it's going to be nightmarish for the Front Man to organize such a game, especially under a strict time limit, though it would be hilarious just to see a random player adventurer or DM getting shot dead just for arguing over stats, this has potential to be worse than Red Light Green Light and the Simon Says idea, as it can cause a Total Party Kill.
- And if we're being honest, I can see them including less complicated tabletop games such as Magic The Gathering, Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh (though they'll need permission from Nintendo and Konami to include these two and due to how Darker and Edgier Squid Game is, very unlikely we're going to see a Pokemon battle or a literal Shadow Game show up in this show) if anything MTG has a higher shot of getting in over D&D and the other two, since it would favor the time limit and the Magic card game would take less than 5 minutes to finish whereas D&D would literally invite a Rock Fall Everyone Dies because of the above arguing and the strict time limit.
- Texas Hold'em or Blackjack.
The guards are also Players
They are also given strict rules they must follow on pain of death, they are also tightly controlled, and the one time an unmasked guard is straight-up asked how he came to be a guard, he has no answer.Additionally, when they show the footage of all the Players being recruited, the Players are, without exception, shown to have chosen the Blue Ddakji during their recruitment with the Salesman.
The guards were selected from those who chose Red.
Mi-nyeo thinks it's Better to Die than Be Killed
Mi-nyeo's sudden ruthlessness in the fifth game may come off as left field due to her Small Name, Big Ego attitude, but given that Deok-su is at the front and refuses to budge until someone else takes the front for him. It's possible Mi-nyeo sees no chance of her own survival but instead of dying making a fatal guess, decides to jump ahead of placement so she can be directly behind Deok-su specifically. Since everyone else is too hesitant to take the risk, there's no one else to take Deok-su down but her.The Salesman is a former winner of the Contest
Similar to The Front Man, The Salesman was once a contestant who managed to win the last round and come off as the winner of the games, and similar to Gi-hun, his victory was a hollow one where winning just wasn't worth losing everyone else over, leading to him either never touching his money or using to try and forget the events of the game. Unlike Gi-hun however, he was never able to get over what happened to him, leading him to try and approach Il-nam in an attempt to enter the game's organization, as he felt he would never be able to truly join society as a "normal" person again and his only place in society would be amongst the organization who, ironically enough, took everything he cared for from him. That's why he is such a Perpetual Smiler and a skilled ddakji player, having his life ruined by "children's game's" broke him from inside out.The Salesman is actually Seok-woo from Train to Busan
The salesman is given no actual name in Squid Game and Seok-Woo's job as a fund manager is a front for his real job as a recruiter for the highly illegal squid games. The events of Train to Busan happen very soon after the squid game canon; the beautiful ending where Seok-woo kills himself to protect his daughter lies about his final memory, his happiest memory was instead bitch slapping Seong Gi-hun over and over again.What would the final game have been if only one player survived to it, or an odd number of players?
Absent any clues, I just imagine an alternate Gi-hun who went through with stabbing Sang-woo as Sae-byeok bled out, trying to play solitaire in the rain and mud, or frantically flipping around the ball-in-a-cup toy against a 10-minute timer.- With a single player, perhaps they win by default or, more cruelly, are sent home empty-handed because they needed to complete all six games to win the prize money and, with no opponent for the sixth game, they only completed five. With an odd number of players, maybe teams are decided by drawing from a hat or something. There'd be two options if that was the case. The first is that the teams are uneven, but it's "fair" in the sense that random chance would determine which team had the extra player. With three surviving players, for example, there could be two slips for "Team 1" and two slips for "Team 2". Players each draw a slip to determine the team. Alternatively, one player could get a free pass so, with three surviving players, one slip would say "Team 1", one would say "Team 2", and the third would be blank. The player who draws the blank slip could either split the prize money with the winner of the final game or be sent home empty-handed.
The Contest allows for multiple winners
The rule is that "those" who win all six games will win a cash prize. Those running the games are committed to their sense of free play, so I doubt that they'd revise the rules to add a seventh game or multiple rounds of the sixth game in order to ensure a single winner.Game 1 is basically guaranteed to set off a panic, leading to eliminations, but depending on reactions from the players, the majority could survive. Game 2 could have a higher survival rate if more players choose the easier shapes or if somebody comes up with the idea of licking the honeycomb early in the game, leading to others copying the technique. Games 3 and 4 each reduce the number of players by half, or a little less. The more players left alive at the start of Game 5, the more who will make it through that round. If, instead of sixteen players, there were twenty-six, for example, you'd expect at least eight survivors, assuming each of the first eighteen chose the wrong pane of glass and nobody fell off the bridge without testing one.
The Squid Game is first shown as a team sport, so if four players survived to the end (for example if the glassmaker hadn't tipped his hand by telling the other players that he could tell the difference), they'd play two on two, and the winning team would split the prize money.
- But at the same time, the list of past winners that Jun-ho comes across clearly lists only one winner per game. This probably means that the games are being carefully manipulated to ensure only one winner. For example, the glass panels may always be equal to or slightly higher than the number of participants, to ensure that all but 2-3 will die. And the reason why the survivors of game 5 were given knives for the night was specifically so that at least some would kill each other in their sleep, leaving only two for the Squid Game. The organizers are not above psychological manipulation to get what they want, like during night 2 when they deliberately arranged for a fight to break out. This probably wasn't needed in the final night of the game we saw because it was obvious Sae-byeok wouldn't make it through the night one way or another, but if she hadn't been injured, or there were more players, it's very likely they could have instigated a fight through some underhanded means until only two were left.
It is intended that at least some surviving players will be injured after the end of Game 5
In Games 1 through 4, the organizers ensure that there is no collateral damage to players who complete the game. Players who passed are out of range or removed from the area before the elimination of those who did not complete in Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, the rope was cut before the winning team could be dragged down by the losing team. In Game 4, the soldiers were following all players and were ready to intervene if the losers became violent towards the winners. In Game 5, however, detonating the glass bridge at the end of the game in close proximity to the winners all but guarantees that there will be injuries. Coupled with the fact that no effort is made to prevent the finalists taking steak knives from their dinner, and it looks like the organizers want fewer finalists. Season 2 will follow a new protagonist
- Seems to be jossed so far according to Word of God, especially with the implications of the Front Man threatening Ga-yeong's safety by putting her in the games and with the hints of his new red-dyed hairstyle representing his newfound rage, Gi-hun will likely still be the main protagonist in Season 2.
The marble game could be won without killing your partner, but is primarily a mind game
The rules state you must get all your opponents marbles, but not that you must have all 20 marbles. The teams could have worked together to swap marbles in various ways, but part of the game is breaking people in a way where they stop seeing ways to work together and instead bring out the worst in each other.
Seeing as Kaiji served as the obvious inspiration behind Squid Game, and that there is a lot of corrupt wealthy people involved with both premises, perhaps Squid Game could be set in the same universe as Kaiji. There are probably more parties involved in financing these deadly "games", what's to say the Teiai Group is not one of them?.
Squid Game is set in the same universe as Get Out (2017)
Both universes involve wealthy people using perverse & violent ways to "entertain" themselves. Perhaps the Armitage family used to be VIPs?
Sae-byeok will appear in some measure in Season 2
Be it through a flashback or even a hallucination.The Salesman is completely ignorant of the nature of the games.
He knows nothing more than what he tells people- that there are more games elsewhere, players use their bodies, and can win much more money. He doesn't need to know anything else, and in fact him knowing more would be a significant risk to the organizers of the games. This is also why he's always smiling- he gets paid to play children's games with people, slap them around a bit, give them a card, and then move on to the next person.- A piece of evidence that could disprove it: He was quick to clear out after seeing Gi-hun in the last episode.
The Front Man's games are more brutal than the original show-runner's games
It's quite unusual that, for as much as the Front Man preaches about fairness, he allows a lot of brutality in the games, especially in regards to players killing players. However, what might make this be how the Front Man runs the games is how the show-runner is pleading him to stop the "bonus game" which was just a makeshift prison riot that was caused by intentionally not giving enough food to the players.And now that the original show-runner has died from a brain tumor, it might become a case of Tyrant Takes the Helm.
- Nah, I think it was just him realizing that there was no way he could survive to enjoy more of the games if the killing spree continued, so once he didn't have anywhere else to go he made the call to end the violence.
Squid Game is set in the same universe as Yu-Gi-Oh!
The games in Season 2 will either be an international edition or be an edition of another country
Bonus points if the games in Season 2 are legally sanctioned.Jun-Ho is alive.
The Front Man clearly shoots Jun-Ho in the shoulder, and then he tumbles off the cliff, thus preventing us from seeing a body. The only other death to be hidden like that was Il-nam, who also ended up surviving the games, and unlike the other case, Jun-Ho is a physically fit and active young man, so his survival is likely. He probably went off the grid so he could go deeper underground and infiltrate the next year's games more thoroughly and cleanly than the on the spot infiltration he did in the first season. My guess is with Gi-Hun re-entering the following year's games, he and Jun-Ho will work more closely together to end them and bring the Front Man and VIPs to justice, with Jun-Ho working from the sidelines and Gi-Hun on the playing field.- Or alternatively, Jun-Ho wasn't killed but rather put in a coma after his injury and was in a coma for the one year skip and will wake up at the beginning of Season 2.
- They're not going to let a plot thread this big left dangling.
- Well his actor is on the cast list for season 2 alongside other characters who are still alive (Gi-hun, the Frontman, the Salesman) so unless he appears in ellborate flashbacks/hallucinations it`s kinda safe to assume he will turn up alive.
Everybody in the games is immortal if not killed.
The file of the glassmaker says he started working in the glassfactory in 1897. Gi-hun's file also has a different birthday, stating he was born October 31, not April 26 he puts in the ATM. Sae-byeok has a nasty scar on her neck and survies a belly wound way longer than reasonable. Deok-su jumps off a bridge without a scratch.They are all immortal.
Ga-yeong (Gi-Hun's daughter) will lose either her mother or stepfather in Season 2
Maybe even both, considering the married couple in Season 1 and they are also in severe financial trouble as well, making them likely targets to get sucked into the games. The gift box, red and blue background, and Gi-Hun telling her "You'll need to get used to these ("these" being the lighter that looks like a gun) pretty soon" will end up being foreshadowing for more than just Season 1.- Especially now that the Front Man has now actively threatened her safety (and that of her mom and stepfather and younger half-brother), she could likely end up in the same position as her father: a future contestant in the games itself! And with both her mom's and stepfather's financial issues, they're highly likely to become competitors themselves, meaning that Gi-hun will have to take on his own ex-wife assuming the stakes are raised in Season 2.
The Front Man is Oh Il-nam's son, making him Jun-ho's half brother.
- It would explain why he left his brother behind to be a part of something like this, and why he believes so strongly in preserving the game's integrity after watching all the other players die — he does it to serve his father. The Front Man position was basically his on-the-job training for the day he has to take over. Being Il-nam's son may also explain why he felt the need to close Il-nam's eyes after he died, and why he was around to do so at all.
- It would explain why he had no problem showing his face, despite the rules — who wants to be the guy who killed the boss' son?
- What Il-nam said about his wife packing lunches for him and their children every morning may not be entirely true — he may have just had a relationship with TFM's mother and liked to think of her as his wife, but never actually married her, or it could all be lies to ingratiate himself with them.
- And hey, if Hwang Dong-hyuk's going to look up fan ideas
— “If I ever make season two, I will try to look up those many ideas, and of course if there are any good ones, I can bring them into the story,” he said — maybe he'll see this one and throw it in.
Kiwoo was a player in the 2019 Squid Game
- He also comes from a poor family and given his desperation to become rich and free his father, he could have been swept up into gambling to try to win more money for his dream to buy the house. Leading to him being recruited by the Salesman and joining the 2019 game. Whether or not he survived is up to you.
The guards are violent criminals who are taken out of prison to work for the Games.
- Basically, they operate on a similar concept to D-Class personnel; they're violent criminals, likely on death row or serving out life sentences, who were taken from prison and promised a new lease on life in exchange for their complete and total loyalty and obedience to the Front Man. This explains why they show no remorse over executing the players in cold blood, and why a few of them even run an organ-harvesting racket on the side; they're criminals already, so they're used to this sort of thing. It also explains why they're so expendable to the Front Man; he has a virtually limitless supply from which he can pull replacements whenever they're needed.
Mi-nyeo is/was a prostitute.
- She is very flirtatious around men, calling them "oppa" and generally doing a lot of kissing up. She also overly attaches herself to Deok-su despite how dangerous he is, probably from experience working in the back alley. Also she does have sex with him. It would also explain how she pulled off her Victoria's Secret Compartment. She ended falling into debt as her age made her appeal fade, which explains why she's sensitive about her age and insists that she is 19 when she's clearly not.
Gi-hun's goal from season 2 and onward will be to end the Squid Games for good.
- Now that he has made it out of that nightmare, Gi-hun will probably want nothing to do with the Squid Games again. BUT his actions were All for Nothing and he'll probably realize that more and more people could and will be forced to play the Squid Game and possibly suffer traumatizing experiences and fates even worst than his (which will include his own daughter Ga-yeong, who's now a likely sought after competitor by the Front Man when he threatens to put her through the same hell as her dad). This realization will cause him to go back, somehow infiltrate the system, help new players survive these games, and gather these survivors and other people to help him take down the Squid Game so no one will be need to play it again. Like a certain archer from Panem, Gi-hun will develop to an influential leader figure to fight the cruel system and try to save new players from their potential deaths.
Gi-hun will be a Decoy Protagonist in future seasons.
His insane luck is what got him from escaping death at the last second throughout all six games. What are the chances of it still being in his favor?- Highly unlikely this happens, especially now that his little girl Ga-yeong is now in danger of being a possible competitor herself. If anything, his chances goes up now that his daughter is a likely target for the games and now that his inner rage is coming out.
Il-nam wanted to die in the games and is disappointed that the Front Man spared him
The Front Man clearly has healthy respect for Il-nam, his mentor and predecessor. He gives him more leeway during the first two games than the other players and doesn't cuff him to the rope for the third. When there's an opportunity to fake his death before the Stepping Stones Bridge, one that would have certainly killed Il-nam given it requires athletic ability and speed, the Front Man fakes his death.Except...that's not what Il-nam wanted. He was honest when he said that he wanted to compete fairly and be treated no different;y than any other player. Giving his life to push Gi-hun forward meant that he would have gone out with a bang and made a difference to someone that cared about him. The Front Man told him tough luck, he's not shooting his mentor in cold blood, and got him set up with a doctor while continuing the games. Wanting to recreate that moment, Il-nam summoned Gi-hun before he died to tell him everything and encourage him to live.
Gi-hun made Il-nam suffer a Heel Realization
Il-nam created the games and killed at least several hundred thousand people. He justified it under the belief that the extremely poor are desperate and Humans Are Bastards.Then he met Gi-hun. Gi-hun went to an old man in barracks where they were knocked out and asked if he was okay. More moments of kindness followed as Il-nam realized that he liked Gi-hun for his spirit, leadership, and Character Development. When Gi-hun started to prove Il-nam's theory right during the marbles game, that a desperate poor person will do anything to survive and succumb to greed, Il-nam realized he couldn't let the corruption happen and stopped him. And if Gi-hun didn't deserve to die or be corrupted, then could the same apply to any of the nameless players that have participated since 1988? Did they die for nothing?
He realized Gi-hun needed a push in the right direction when hearing the latter didn't spend his money at all, and summoned him as a form of an apology. Il-nam wanted to prove that he hadn't just left behind a legacy of pain, and to see that humans are worth saving. He can only die hoping that Gi-hun will redeem his legacy.
Season 2 will feature either someone finding Jun-ho's notes or a gang carrying out the plan Deok-su outlined
Jun-ho kept his notes on his phone, and those tend to have automatic data backups if you have Apple, that update once every few weeks. Even though he didn't send the information — or even better, it did and his boss couldn't understand the transcriptions of a scared Cowboy Cop finding his brother— it was stored on a server somewhere, and one of his coworkers finds it. It may even be the same guy that laughed at Gi-hun, who later goes Oh, Crap! and starts putting the pieces together. Cue another undercover operation but this time one with a lot more manpower and resources, that can ally with Gi-hun. The officer will also apologize to Gi-hun for not believing him, but Gi-hun would say no hard feelings.Alternatively, someone who is smarter than Deok-su will be able to reach the same conclusion that he did, and have their gang infiltrate the guards. Their heist will go wrong but also show if the Front Man has planned for this scenario after Jun-ho came far enough to nearly bring down the whole operation.
In-ho faked Jun-ho's death
He didn't shoot him with the machine guns, but with a pistol. One that also looks like the police regulation one that Jun-ho carried. Remember what In-ho said? By regulation, one chamber has to hold a blank. He purposely made sure that he fired a blank at his brother.The question becomes then why did Jun-ho fall? Because, as any film production crew can attest, a blank is not always safer than a bullet. It can even prove fatal.
In-ho waited until the guards were out of the area, and then rescued Jun-ho later. He's been locked up in the Time Skip following his recovery, the biggest-kept secret in the compound.
- If this is the case, then why was he wracked with guilt and emotion at the end of Episode 8 and go as far as to hear the gunshot again and hallucinate his brother when looking in the mirror? That makes it seem like he genuinely believes he killed his brother.
Il-name's son will become a Chekhov's Gunman in Season Two and a legitimate threat to the Front Man.
Il-nam fondly says that Gi-hun would be the same age as his son, being an October birthday, and they had similar habits as children, like not drinking their milk. Yet we never see any evidence of the young man or his mother, and Il-nam believes that his boy is still alive. Season 2 will have Gi-hun meet Il-nam's son, who will either become an ally in taking down the Games or an antagonist that wants the wealth and status that comes with being a VIP. Either way, the man will be asking why a random stranger— the Front Man— inherited his father's terrible empire. When Gi-hun hits Sangwoo during the sixth game yelling “You killed them!” He also meant Ali in addition to Saebyeok and the glassmaker.
Gihun knew Sangwoo partnered with Ali for the marbles game, he saw it happen. He has also seen Sangwoo being capable of actual murder with pushing the glassmaker and killing Saebyeok to get his way. Not only that, but Gihun also did try to trick Ilnam out of his marbles before getting called out on it. It’s possible he put two and two together after seeing Sangwoo’s actions and suspected foul play in how Sangwoo won over Ali. Sangwoo killed Saebyeok over Gihun because he wanted Gihun to win over himself.
Many have pointed out that Sangwoo likely didn’t kill Gihun despite Saebyeok being weak and dying anyway because there would be no opponents for him in the sixth game and he may be sent off with nothing. However, it is possible that Sangwoo did deeply regret his actions after the games, especially when Gihun calls him out on it. He certainly does have suicidal thoughts, just look at the Episode 2 Foreshadowing. Sangwoo started questioning himself and felt that he didn’t deserve the money that others died for. However, seeing how Gihun was a far more moral person than him, he decided that Gihun should win the money, because he might make it mean something. While he did also try to play as hard to win, ultimately, he was banking on Gihun to win. And when Gihun refused to let Sangwoo die, Sangwoo took things into his own hands. For Season 2, Gi-Hun will be undergoing Took a Level in Badass
According to the creator himself, Hwang Dong-Hyuk, Gi-Hun dyed his hair bright red was meant to symbolize his inner rage coming out. So, in Season 2, we going to see Gi-Hun taking a level in badass and by the end of Season 2, he's no longer the same pathetic basement dweller from first episode of Season 1 and becomes totally different beast. Gi-Hun will suffer Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome in Season 2
He may have won the Game in Season 1, but his luck will finally run out during Season 2 during the first game.- Very unlikely to happen, Word of God has likely stated that Gi-hun will likely still be the lead going forward, especially now he has a purpose to keep on living: to prevent his own daughter from joining the game itself!
Squid Game shares a universe with Zero Escape
Zero Escape also had a death game started by rich people exploiting the poor for their entertainment, the difference is there are no supernatural occurences happening. Unless, Gi-hun cheated death because his past selves transmitted information on what to do. In Season 2, Gi-Hun and Jun-Ho will meet each other again and work together to end the games
Gi-Hun and Jun-Ho have met each other in episode 2 so it's likely their paths will cross if we are to believe that Jun-Ho survived. Furthermore, Gi-Hun has recently just seen the Salesman (who is the only member unmasked), so his face might be a lead for Jun-Ho and the police to try and find him and possibly members of the games itself, possibly ones that we haven't seen before.