SPOILER ALERT: This text accommodates main spoilers from the “Squid Sport” Season 2 premiere, now streaming on Netflix.

The second season of Netflix’s hit Korean drama “Squid Sport” opens with a literal bang — fairly just a few of them, really. However by far probably the most stunning is the one within the remaining few moments of the episode, titled “Bread and Lottery,” when Squid Sport winner Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) unnecessarily dangers his life in a recreation of Russian Roulette with The Recruiter (Gong Yoo) working for the video games.

Whereas Gi-hun might as an alternative simply shoot The Recruiter when he has the gun in hand, he decides to maintain going with the chances fairly clearly in no ones favor as they begin to reload every time earlier than they pull the set off. The choice is dangerous when Gi-hun’s purpose is to not die, however to stay and procure the knowledge The Recruiter has on who’s behind the Squid Sport and the place to seek out them in order that Gi-hun can lastly attempt to take them down three years after successful the lethal battle royale.

Lee and “Squid Sport” creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk broke down Gi-hun’s selection within the Season 2 premiere for Selection, in addition to giving extra perception into The Recruiter’s backstory and what Gi-hun’s plans are heading into the remainder of the second season.

What prompted you to convey again The Recruiter for Season 2 and what did you need to present about who he’s as an individual outdoors of his job to convey new individuals into the Squid Sport annually?

This Recruiter character, he’s somebody who goes out recruiting new gamers, in all probability solely about for 2 months or so in a 12 months. Then I bought to pondering, what would he do on his free time when he’s not working and on the market to recruit individuals? I used to be envisioning this character as somebody who was extraordinarily distorted and damaged and damage inside as a consequence of the entire horrible recollections that he held with him. And each day, I felt that he was somebody who needed to do one thing with the intention to consider that what he was doing to the weak and susceptible was justifiable, and he wanted to do one thing that allowed him to actually consider that these persons are worthy of being handled as in the event that they had been trash. In an effort to try this, he would go about approaching these individuals, making enjoyable of them, ridiculing them and displaying a variety of contempt for them.

And that was what I wished to precise with that bread versus lottery ticket — meals that you would be able to devour instantly versus that craving for hitting a jackpot. And by doing so, he was in a position to persuade himself that he was proper all alongside: that individuals had been trash, that these individuals who didn’t have cash to purchase a meal that day, their greed would nonetheless drive them to decide on a lottery. And that may enable him to offer himself willpower and justification for what he did as a dwelling. I nearly noticed that as some type of recreation he would play on his personal, or nearly a ritual that he would do.

Why does Gi-hun even entertain The Recruiter’s proposal to play Russian Roulette to win the knowledge The Recruiter has concerning the individuals behind the Squid Sport? Why doesn’t Gi-hun simply select to shoot him, acquire the main points in his pocket and go hunt the video games down as he plans to, and never danger his life in any respect in a contest with very lethal odds?

Hwang: Gi-hun is a personality who has a way of righteousness and who’s simply. He’s simply, on the finish of the day, additionally a man who enjoys a very good recreation. You see him in Season 1 when he’s on the race tracks how elated he’s as he’s collaborating in that wager and recreation. And I see him as somebody who’s hooked on the act of taking part in a recreation, hooked on successful. Lots of addicts who really go and gamble, they’re not hooked on the money prize, however they’re hooked on that recreation and taking part in that recreation. Gi-hun got here out of Squid Sport being the only winner of the video games. I noticed him as somebody who was innately hooked on successful; one thing inside and had been damaged and broken in that manner.

And so relatively than taking the extra affordable route and holding the gun as much as The Recruiter and ending all of it there, I see him as somebody who needs to make The Recruiter submissive by successful him in a very good spherical of a recreation. And that’s why I wished him to entertain, as you place it, what The Recruiter was initiating. And I additionally noticed that spherical as nearly a recreation or a conflict or a contest between the private values and ideas of the 2 — desirous to show to the opposite person who, I’m proper and also you’re improper, desirous to show to The Recruiter that, I’m a greater human being than you’re.

Lee: I feel what Gi-hun was pondering was that, if he doesn’t associate with what The Recruiter needs to do, he could have no likelihood to seek out the fellows behind the video games. He has to associate with no matter The Recruiter says, with the intention to get again into the sport or get to see one of many individuals behind the sport. So I feel that’s why he wished to do the Russian Roulette, regardless of figuring out that he would possibly get killed, that he was that determined to seek out that chance.

In that scene, that they had this dialogue, and The Recruiter says to Gi-hun, “You’re nothing out of the strange and you may’t cease us.” And Gi-hun says again, “Nicely, you’re nothing out of the strange both, and also you’re similar to a watchdog of the individuals behind the video games. And I need to speak to your proprietor.” They’ve this very intense dialogue throughout the recreation, which makes Gi-hun need much more to win the sport. The best way it was written, it was simply so flawless; director Hwang was such a genius in writing that scene.

Now that he’s killed The Recruiter and bought the knowledge he wants to maneuver ahead to find the Squid Sport once more, what’s Gi-hun’s plan from right here for the remainder of Season 2?

Lee: The primary plan on his thoughts is to cease the sport, and the second is to avoid wasting extra lives, and the third is to punish the host behind the sport. So I feel what will be actually enjoyable for the viewers to see is whether or not he’s going to have the ability to attain and obtain all of those targets all through the episodes. These are among the questions that basically drive the narrative of Season 2, and what makes it all of the extra intriguing.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.