Squid Game starts with a stranger in a subway station offering a desperate man a game of ddakji and a cash prize. A business card follows, then a van, then an island, where 456 people deep in debt wake up in green tracksuits. The games are children's playground games. The prize is enormous. The penalty for losing is death.
Written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show became Netflix's biggest series on release in 2021 and grew into a three-season story. Its characters fall into three groups: the players, each identified by a number on their chest; the masked staff and organisers who run the game; and the people outside trying to find it. This guide covers all three, season by season.
- Creator
- Hwang Dong-hyuk
- Network
- Netflix
- Seasons
- 3 (2021, 2024, 2025)
- Language
- Korean
- Genre
- Survival thriller, drama
Season one players
The first game gathers people who have run out of options: gamblers, migrants, a gangster, a fraudster, a defector. The show spends its time on a handful of them and lets the rest fill the dormitory.
Seong Gi-hun (Player 456)
Protagonist · Gambler and divorced father
Gi-hun is a chauffeur and compulsive gambler who lives with his elderly mother, steals from her to bet on horses, and can't afford a proper birthday present for his daughter. He's careless and irresponsible, but he's also kind in a way the game keeps punishing. His decency is what makes the other players trust him. Season one ends with him dyeing his hair red and turning his back on a flight to see his daughter so he can go after the people who run the game.
- Actor
- Lee Jung-jae
Cho Sang-woo (Player 218)
Gi-hun's childhood friend · Disgraced investor
Sang-woo grew up in Gi-hun's neighbourhood and was its success story: top of his class at Seoul National University and a job in securities. He's now wanted for fraud and embezzlement. He's the smartest player in the room and he knows it, and his story is about how quickly intelligence turns cold when survival is on the line. He and Gi-hun represent two answers to the same question.
- Actor
- Park Hae-soo
Kang Sae-byeok (Player 067)
North Korean defector · Pickpocket
Sae-byeok is a guarded young woman who escaped North Korea and needs money to bring her mother over the border and get her little brother out of an orphanage. She trusts nobody, works alone and is quick with a knife. Her friendship with Ji-yeong, and her reluctant alliance with Gi-hun, slowly show the person underneath the armour.
- Actor
- Jung Ho-yeon (HoYeon)
Oh Il-nam (Player 001)
Elderly player
Il-nam is a frail, cheerful old man with a brain tumour who says he'd rather play than wait to die. He bonds with Gi-hun over childhood memories, and their marbles game in episode six is one of the series' most painful scenes. He is not what he seems, and the finale shows him in a very different light.
- Actor
- Oh Yeong-su
Abdul Ali (Player 199)
Pakistani migrant worker
Ali came to Korea to support his wife and child, and his employer has refused to pay him for months. He's strong, polite and completely trusting. He calls Sang-woo "sir" and does whatever he asks. His kindness makes him the clearest test of who the other players really are.
- Actor
- Anupam Tripathi
Jang Deok-su (Player 101)
Gangster
Deok-su is a tattooed gang member who owes money to the wrong people. He organises the strongest players into a bloc, bullies the weak and attacks other players at night. He's the game's most obvious predator, which makes him dangerous but also predictable.
- Actor
- Heo Sung-tae
Han Mi-nyeo (Player 212)
Con artist
Mi-nyeo is loud, shameless and constantly attaching herself to whoever looks strongest. She attaches herself to Deok-su, and he discards her when she's no longer useful. That turns out to be a serious mistake.
- Actor
- Kim Joo-ryoung
Ji-yeong (Player 240)
Young woman just out of prison
Ji-yeong was released from prison the day she was recruited, after killing her abusive father. She's blunt, funny and expects nothing from life. Paired with Sae-byeok for the marbles game, she spends their time together talking, and the conversation becomes one of the most quietly moving in the show.
- Actor
- Lee You-mi
Season two and three players
Seasons two and three tell one continuous story. Gi-hun returns to the game on purpose, three years after his win, with a plan to bring it down. This time the players vote after each round on whether to continue, which splits them into "O" and "X" factions.
Lee Myung-gi (Player 333)
Crypto YouTuber
Myung-gi is an investment influencer who lost his followers' money on a coin he promoted. His ex-girlfriend Jun-hee is in the game too, pregnant with his child. He's self-serving but not heartless, and his choices around Jun-hee and the baby become central to season three.
- Actor
- Yim Si-wan
Kim Jun-hee (Player 222)
Pregnant player
Jun-hee is Myung-gi's ex-girlfriend, and she's heavily pregnant with his child. She's quiet and steady and keeps her distance from him. Her pregnancy gives the second half of the story its emotional stakes.
- Actor
- Jo Yu-ri
Cho Hyun-ju (Player 120)
Former special forces soldier
Hyun-ju is a trans woman and military veteran who needs money for gender-affirming surgery and a new life abroad. She's calm, capable and one of the most trustworthy players in the game, and she protects the vulnerable without being asked.
- Actor
- Park Sung-hoon
Jang Geum-ja (Player 149)
Mother of Player 007
Geum-ja is a sharp, practical older woman who is in the game because her son's debts dragged her in. She mothers the younger players, especially Jun-hee, and has no patience for nonsense.
- Actor
- Kang Ae-sim
Park Yong-sik (Player 007)
Geum-ja's son
A gambling addict who signed up without telling his mother, then found her in the dormitory. Their relationship is tense, loving and frequently embarrassing for him.
- Actor
- Yang Dong-geun
Park Jung-bae (Player 390)
Gi-hun's old friend
Jung-bae is a former gambling buddy of Gi-hun's from before the first game. He's easy-going and loyal, and seeing him in the game is a gut-punch for Gi-hun, who now feels responsible for him.
- Actor
- Lee Seo-hwan
Kang Dae-ho (Player 388)
Former marine
Dae-ho is an upbeat former marine who joins Gi-hun's group and talks a big game about his military past. How he holds up under real pressure becomes an important question in the third season.
- Actor
- Kang Ha-neul
Thanos (Player 230)
Rapper
Choi Su-bong, who performs as Thanos, is a flamboyant rapper who lost money on Myung-gi's coin. He's loud, unpredictable and fuelled by drugs he smuggled in, which makes him dangerous in the dormitory.
- Actor
- Choi Seung-hyun (T.O.P)
Nam-gyu (Player 124)
Thanos's sidekick
A former club worker who trails after Thanos and slowly reveals a nastier streak of his own as the games go on.
- Actor
- Roh Jae-won
Se-mi (Player 380)
Crypto investor
A sharp, tough player who also lost money on Myung-gi's coin and has no illusions about the people around her.
- Actor
- Won Ji-an
Min-su (Player 125)
Timid young player
A nervous young man who drifts between groups, trying to stay out of trouble.
- Actor
- Lee David
The organisers and staff
The game is run by masked workers in pink jumpsuits whose rank is marked by a circle, triangle or square on their masks. Above them sits the Front Man, and above him a group of wealthy foreign spectators called the VIPs.
The Front Man (Hwang In-ho)
Director of the game
The Front Man wears a black, angular mask and runs operations on the island. He believes the game is fairer than the outside world, because everyone plays under the same rules. Season one reveals he's Hwang In-ho, a former police officer, a past winner and the brother of detective Jun-ho. In season two he joins the game in disguise as Player 001, "Young-il," and befriends Gi-hun from the inside.
- Actor
- Lee Byung-hun
The Recruiter
Salesman in a suit
A smiling man in a sharp suit who finds desperate people in train stations and invites them to play ddakji, slapping them each time they lose. He appears briefly in season one, and season two shows more of how he selects his targets, and what he really thinks of them.
- Actor
- Gong Yoo
Kang No-eul
Pink-suited guard · North Korean defector
No-eul is a former North Korean soldier who takes a job as a guard on the island. She was separated from her young daughter when she fled the North, and she's barely holding on. Her quiet attachment to one of the players pulls her into a rebellion against the people she works for.
- Actor
- Park Gyu-young
Captain Park
Boat captain
A grizzled boat captain who helps Jun-ho search the seas for the game's island. He's more involved than he lets on.
- Actor
- Oh Dal-su
The VIPs
Wealthy spectators
Masked foreign millionaires who bet on the players. They're deliberately grotesque, and the show uses them to make its point about who profits from other people's desperation.
The Young-hee doll
Red Light, Green Light
The giant doll that sings and turns her head in the first game. She's the single most recognisable image from the show and returns in later seasons.
Outside the game
Hwang Jun-ho
Police detective
Jun-ho is a young detective searching for his missing older brother. He sneaks onto the island in season one by taking a guard's uniform and spends the season investigating from the inside. In season two he leads a search for the island from outside, convinced he can find it again.
- Actor
- Wi Ha-joon
Gi-hun's mother and daughter
Family
Gi-hun's mother runs a market stall and has diabetes. His daughter Ga-yeong lives with her mother and stepfather and is moving to the United States. They're the reasons he plays, and the people he lets down most.
Squid Game cast list
| Character | Number | Actor | Seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seong Gi-hun | 456 | Lee Jung-jae | 1–3 |
| Cho Sang-woo | 218 | Park Hae-soo | 1 |
| Kang Sae-byeok | 067 | Jung Ho-yeon | 1 |
| Oh Il-nam | 001 | Oh Yeong-su | 1 |
| Abdul Ali | 199 | Anupam Tripathi | 1 |
| Jang Deok-su | 101 | Heo Sung-tae | 1 |
| Han Mi-nyeo | 212 | Kim Joo-ryoung | 1 |
| Ji-yeong | 240 | Lee You-mi | 1 |
| Hwang In-ho (Front Man) | 001 in season 2 | Lee Byung-hun | 1–3 |
| Hwang Jun-ho | — | Wi Ha-joon | 1–3 |
| The Recruiter | — | Gong Yoo | 1–2 |
| Lee Myung-gi | 333 | Yim Si-wan | 2–3 |
| Kim Jun-hee | 222 | Jo Yu-ri | 2–3 |
| Cho Hyun-ju | 120 | Park Sung-hoon | 2–3 |
| Jang Geum-ja | 149 | Kang Ae-sim | 2–3 |
| Park Jung-bae | 390 | Lee Seo-hwan | 2–3 |
| Kang Dae-ho | 388 | Kang Ha-neul | 2–3 |
| Thanos | 230 | Choi Seung-hyun (T.O.P) | 2 |
| Kang No-eul | — | Park Gyu-young | 2–3 |
The show made international names of several of its actors. Lee Jung-jae became the first Asian actor to win the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Oh Yeong-su won a Golden Globe for playing Il-nam. Our K-culture guide covers more Korean dramas and their casts.
Major deaths and fates (spoilers)
- Ali is tricked by Sang-woo in the marbles game and eliminated.
- Ji-yeong deliberately loses the marbles game so that Sae-byeok can go on.
- Mi-nyeo drags Deok-su off the glass bridge with her.
- Sae-byeok survives the bridge badly injured and is killed by Sang-woo the night before the final game.
- Sang-woo takes his own life during the final squid game rather than let Gi-hun forfeit, and asks Gi-hun to look after his mother.
- Il-nam is revealed in the finale to be one of the game's creators. He dies of his illness in front of Gi-hun after a last bet about human decency.
- Gi-hun's rebellion at the end of season two fails, and season three follows him back into the game. In the final game he gives up his own life so that Jun-hee's newborn baby can survive and win.
- The Front Man survives and, in the closing scenes, delivers Gi-hun's belongings and prize money to his daughter in the United States.
Squid Game uses deaths the way few shows do, as moral tests rather than shocks. Our piece on character deaths looks at how that works.
What the characters are really about
Every player is in debt, and the show is clear about why: gambling, bad investments, unpaid wages, family obligations, a system that lends to people who can't pay. The game simply makes the stakes literal. Inside it, the characters split along one line: who stays kind when kindness is expensive.
- Gi-hun keeps choosing other people, even when it costs him.
- Sang-woo is what happens when someone smart decides only winning matters.
- Il-nam and the Front Man argue the game is fair. The show spends three seasons proving them wrong.
- Ali, Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok show the decency the game destroys first.
The Front Man and Il-nam are good examples of the "system" antagonist in our villain types guide, and Squid Game's satire of wealth and spectacle pairs well with The Boys. If the dread is what you're after, our horror characters page has more.
Where to start
- Season 1 (2021) — nine episodes and a complete story on its own.
- Seasons 2 and 3 (2024–2025) — one story split across two releases. Watch them back to back if you can; season two ends mid-action.
- Squid Game: The Challenge — a separate reality competition inspired by the show, with no deaths and no connection to the story.
All Squid Game character names A–Z
A–D
- Abdul Ali — Player 199
- Captain Park — Boat captain
- Cho Hyun-ju — Player 120
- Cho Sang-woo — Player 218
F–H
- The Front Man — Organiser
- Han Mi-nyeo — Player 212
- Hwang In-ho — Front Man
- Hwang Jun-ho — Detective
J
- Jang Deok-su — Player 101
- Jang Geum-ja — Player 149
- Ji-yeong — Player 240
K–M
- Kang Dae-ho — Player 388
- Kang No-eul — Guard
- Kang Sae-byeok — Player 067
- Kim Jun-hee — Player 222
- Lee Myung-gi — Player 333
- Min-su — Player 125
N–P
- Nam-gyu — Player 124
- Oh Il-nam — Player 001
- Park Jung-bae — Player 390
- Park Yong-sik — Player 007
R–Y
- The Recruiter — Salesman
- Se-mi — Player 380
- Seong Gi-hun — Player 456
- Thanos — Player 230
- Young-hee — The doll
- Young-il — Front Man's alias
Frequently asked questions
Who is the main character of Squid Game?
Seong Gi-hun, Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae. He's a debt-ridden gambler and divorced father who enters the game for money and becomes its most determined opponent. He's the lead in all three seasons.
Who is the Front Man in Squid Game?
The Front Man is Hwang In-ho, the masked man who runs the games on the island. He is the older brother of police detective Hwang Jun-ho and a former winner of the game himself. He's played by Lee Byung-hun.
Who is Player 001?
In season one, Player 001 is Oh Il-nam, an elderly man who befriends Gi-hun. The finale reveals he's one of the game's creators. In season two, the Front Man secretly enters the game wearing number 001 under the name Young-il.
How many seasons of Squid Game are there?
Three. Season one was released in September 2021, season two in December 2024 and season three, which concludes Gi-hun's story, in June 2025. Seasons two and three were filmed together and form one continuous story.
What does Player 456 mean?
Each season of the game has 456 players, and Gi-hun is the last to sign up, so he gets the final number. When he returns in season two, he's given 456 again.
Is Squid Game based on a true story?
No, but it draws on real things. Hwang Dong-hyuk was inspired by his own financial struggles and South Korea's household debt crisis, and the games are based on playground games he played as a child. The violence and the island are fiction.