Frontman Lee Byung-hun Joins Squid Game Season 2: Villain Reveals Tragic Backstory

Warning: This article contains some major spoilers for season two of Squid Game on Netflix.

While the identity of the frontman, Squid Game’s biggest villain, was finally revealed at the end of the first season of the hit Netflix series, his shocking backstory will be revealed in the upcoming second season.

Lee Byung-hun – who returns as the frontman leading the twisted games in the new season, premiering on December 26 – told NBC News that his character is more complex than what was originally shown to fans. The frontman, whose name is In-ho, has a painful past that includes the death of his wife and mounting medical debt. With this storyline, Lee said he wanted to show how his character became an “extreme pessimist.”

“As an actor, what was really most important to me was being able to tell the story of the frontman’s past,” Lee said in Korean through a translator. “He is someone who believes that there is no hope left in the world, who believes that there is an absolute absence of humanity.”

The upcoming season revolves around Gi-hun, or Player 456, who decides to get back into the game three years after he was already crowned the winner. This time, Gi-hun is determined to put an end to the murderous competition and protect his fellow players. But unbeknownst to the participants, the frontman, a former winner of the game who conducted the horrific experiment, has disguised himself as Player 001. And he secretly ensures that the game continues.

In a scene where he spends a moment with Gi-hun and the other competitors, Player 001 tells them that his wife is suffering from acute liver cirrhosis and needs a liver transplant. She is also pregnant. And although the doctor suggested that she terminate the pregnancy, she refused. When the couple had trouble finding a donor, he told the group, he borrowed as much money as he could, but it wasn’t enough.

“Then one of my oldest salespeople heard about my situation and offered to help me. But people saw it as a bribe. I was fired from my job. I had devoted my entire youth to this topic. “These games were my last hope,” he said. “I really need this money, even if it is blood money, to save my wife and our child.”

But the frontman’s alter ego hasn’t been fully invented yet, Lee said. And in an earlier episode, In-ho’s brother, police officer Jun-ho, is seen visiting the grave of In-ho’s late wife.

“The false persona he takes on in the game – it’s actually his own story,” Lee said of the series of devastating events that led to the frontman’s rise to fame.

Despite the twisted nature of his character and the series’ dark themes that raise questions about humanity and inequality, Lee said that he personally continues to resist pessimism.

“As we go through our daily lives, despite the many disappointments we experience, the little piece of hope we carry within us is what allows us to live day by day,” Lee said. “‘Squid Game’ may be a very compressed version of the reality we live in, but it is a very extreme version that reflects the dark side of the world.”

The second season of the Netflix series follows the hugely popular first season, which became the most-watched show of all time on the platform with 1.65 billion hours streamed in the first four weeks of its debut in 2021. The new season has already won a Golden Globe nomination for best drama series. But director Hwang Dong-hyuk said making the show wasn’t any easier the second time.

“Because Season 1 was so popular around the world, I felt a tremendous amount of pressure when it was decided that there would be a second season,” Hwang said. “So many people out there said, ‘Season 1 was perfect.’ Why don’t you just end it with Season 1?'”

Hwang said he ultimately used the chatter as a “creative catalyst.”