This is the large dormitory for the contestants in Season 2 of the smash Netflix series "Squid Game." The show's art director Chae Kyoung-sun said she dimmed the lighting to describe the flow of the story of protagonist Seong Gi-hun's revenge, as well as highlight the visual contrast when the lights illuminate O or X signs amid darkness.

By Lee Kyoung Mi
Photos = Netflix

The colorful maze-like stairs in pink, yellow and green featured in Season 1 of the smash Netflix series "Squid Game" showed eye-opening colors far brighter than shown in the video, eliciting wows from the audience. When the soundtrack played with recorders in the K-drama, it felt like reporters were playing the game.

Steel beds were packed along the walls of a wider space. Filming of the game's third round was over, leaving just 100 out of the original 456 beds. Big "O" and "X" signs were on the floor. Which blue O or red X buttons should have been pressed to survive?

The set for Season 2 of the smash Netflix series "Squid Game" was unveiled on Nov. 11. Since the first season took the world by storm, domestic and foreign media on Dec. 7 last year flocked to a sneak peek at the invitation of the streaming service after agreeing to a media embargo lifted 11 months later.

The set was under tight security. Before entering the venue, reporters had to sign pledges not to leak the things they saw or heard there, attach anti-filming stickers on their smartphone cameras and put such devices in security envelopes. A Netflix source asked media personnel to abide by the media embargo to avoid spoiling it for viewers worldwide.

That day, Hwang Dong-hyuk, who created, wrote and directed the series, art designer Chae Kyoung-sun and Kim Ji-yeon, CEO of the show's production company First Man Studio, were at the set to explain the second season.

Series creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk on Dec. 7, 2023, told reporters, "The first season of 'Squid Game' ends with Seong Gi-hun turning back instead of getting on the plane, and the second is what happens to him afterward," adding, "I'll do my best with the cast and staff to create a production that meets your expectations."

Appearing from deep within the stairs, Hwang greeted the reporters with a cheerful smile and said, "My work was popular before, but this is my first to gain global attention even before completing production. So this feels extremely unfamiliar, strange and burdensome." 

Season 2 will see contestants at the end of each game vote on whether to quit and leave or continue. Hwang said he was influenced by regional, religious, gender and generational conflicts worldwide.

"We inserted a device to divide people into groups, take sides based on their choice of O or X and cause conflicts among them," he added. "The world has so much social divide these days, so we set as the main theme of Season 2 'distinctions separating people.'"

The accommodations where the contestants eat and sleep visually portrayed the divisions the director described, with the long red and blue lines between the O and X signs in LED prominent.

"The intuition that OX gives is the start of conflict and a feeling of difference between you and me," art director Chae said. "I chose red and blue to represent social ideologies and global symbols."

The latest edition of "Squid Game" features an intense showdown between the vengeful Seong (played by Lee Jung-jae) and the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). Slated to premiere on Dec. 26, the second season will see new characters and more brutal games.

The maze-like stairs in Season 2 of "Squid Game" have the same colors and designs as those in the first season, but larger in scale. Art director Chae Kyoung-sun said, "Conflict and confrontation will erupt between characters as they walk up and down the stairs."