Those who watched Squid Game know its first season ended with a cliffhanger that left viewers — all 100+ million of them — intrigued, somewhat divided, and probing for answers online.
Anyone who's yet to tune into Netflix's mega-popular dystopian survival series: Here's your warning that there are some spoilers ahead.
The final scene of Squid Game's first season sees Seong Gi-hun, the protagonist played by actor Lee Jung-jae, boarding a flight to visit his daughter overseas after winning the brutal competition that plays out over the course of nine episodes.
But just before entering the plane, Gi-hun turns around and bolts in the opposite direction after calling the creators of the game. It's an apparent show of intent to avenge himself and his former competitors.
It turns out Squid Game nearly ended on quite a different note, as Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show's creator, revealed during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
"We actually wrestled between two different scenarios for the ending," he shared. "There was one, the other alternate ending, where Gi-hun would get on the plane and leave. And then there was, of course, the one where he would turn back and walk towards the camera."
Ultimately, he said that alternate ending would have detracted from the message that Squid Game's final scene aimed to communicate. "We came to the conclusion that the question that we wanted to propose cannot be done if he left on the plane," Dong-hyuk noted.
Squid Game's ending also provided ample opportunities for the creator to continue Gi-hun's story come Season 2. What do you think of the alternate final scene? Let me know in the comments below.
