<i>Squid Game</i> Season 4 Is Not Happening, But We Might Just Get a Spinoff

Now that Squid Game’s third and final season is out in the world, I am personally hoping for one thing: that Hwang Dong-hyuk can get some rest. The filmmaker and series creator has not been subtle about his exhaustion after creating the first season of the Netflix sensation. Imagine how he feels now, two seasons after that.

“Yeah, I’m very tired. I haven’t had a deep sleep for a long time. I want to take a rest,” he told The New York Times before the season 3 premiere. “Then I want to do feature films. I have an idea for my next feature.”

There may be someone ready to take up the mantle: David Fincher, the director of Fight Club, Gone Girl, and The Social Network. In October 2024, Deadline reported that the filmmaker was eyeing an English-language offshoot of Squid Game, although neither he nor Netflix have confirmed the news yet. Still, it seems likely, given Fincher’s ongoing collaboration with the streamer, which includes films and series like House of Cards, Mindhunter, Mank, and the upcoming Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood sequel. According to Deadline, “Insiders say the Squid Game series is likely the project Fincher commits his time to in 2025.”

The final scene of the Squid Game season 3 sure seems to set up an spinoff. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!) The episode closes with a scene of the Front Man in the U.S. coming across a person in a suit playing a version of Ddakji, the “slap game” used to recruit players, with a disheveled man in an alley. When the recruiter turns around, it’s a surprise reveal: She’s played by Cate Blanchett. All she does is exchange a knowing look at the Front Man, their mutual recognition hinting that the Squid Game operation extends beyond South Korea. It’s also the perfect setup for a U.S.-based spinoff.

It’s unclear if Blanchett will be the lead of that new show or just a one-time cameo, but the former is possible, since she previously worked with Fincher on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For now though, that’s just a theory. No casting announcements have been made yet. As for the creative team, Deadline reported that Dennis Kelly, writer of Matilda the Musical and the TV series Utopia, is supposedly writing the script.

Hwang has also voiced his own ideas for an offshoot. He told Entertainment Weekly, “I actually had this faint ideation about possibly a spinoff—not a sequel, but maybe a spinoff about the three-year gap between season 1 and season 2 when Gi-hun [Lee Jung-jae] looks around for the recruiters,” he said. “Maybe I could have a portrayal of what the recruiters or Captain Park [Oh Dal-su] or officers or masked men were doing in that period, not inside the gaming arena, but their life outside of that.”

That Hwang’s limited series has now ballooned into an international franchise might be a little ironic, considering the show’s pointed critiques of capitalism. But he hopes that at least it gets viewers to start thinking about such issues. “If they do none of that and only enjoy the goods and experiences, that could be a problem. But as long as it entails food for thought, I’m good with that,” he told Times. And if Squid Game comes to America, there will surely be much to discuss.