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Ever since the first season of Squid Game became one of the biggest TV events of 2021, a new season has been inevitable. It was originally announced in June 2022, though first Netflix had to do that bizarre reality game show based on the series in 2023. In their latest Next on Netflix trailer, they capped it off with our first look at Lee Jung-jae in Squid Game season two, which will land on the streaming service in 2024.

While we’re not surprised that Netflix wants to build up hype around Squid Game season two, we’re almost as struck by what they didn’t show in the extended trailer. In a celebration of all the big shows and films they’ve got coming out in 2024, including new seasons of Bridgerton and Cobra Kai and Eddie Murphy’s return in Beverley Hills Cop: Axel F, there wasn’t a sniff of Stranger Things season five, which makes us think that we won’t return to the Upside Down until 2025 at the earliest.

That leaves Squid Game as the most anticipated release for Netflix in the coming year, which is a risky strategy. The streamer used the Korean drama as the capstone reveal during the Next on Netflix trailer above, emphasizing its importance to the company and its place at the top of their entertainment hierarchy for 2024. That leaves them with the nearly impossible job of capturing lightning in a bottle a second time, this time when the premise doesn’t hold the same shock factor that the premise did in 2021. The first season of Squid Game became a runaway success almost as much because it felt so different from anything else on Netflix at the time. How can the streamer hope to repeat that kind of buzz all over again?

Beyond the achingly short clip shown in the trailer, Netflix also shared a set of photos for the upcoming season of Squid Game. They include returning characters of Gi-hun, Front Man, and the Recruiter – plus a first look at a new, unnamed character played by Park Gyu-young. We’ll have to wait until later in the year to see where she fits into the world of Squid Game.

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