Squid Game Season 3's Surprise Hollywood Cameo Explained By The Show's Creator
Step out of the alley and stop playing ddakji if you're not up to date on the entirety of "Squid Game," including the third and final season. Spoilers ahead!
Who else was surprised to see two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett pop up at the very end of "Squid Game," the South Korean sensation created by Hwang Dong-hyuk? If you've watched it, you know that Blanchett, known from everything from "Thor: Ragnarok" to "Tár," appears as the American "recruiter" who gets players involved in these deranged and dangerous games, seen in an alleyway forcing a poor soul to play a high-stakes game of ddakji (a Korean card game) and making pointed eye contact with the Front Man, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). According to Hwang, who spoke to TheWrap after the third and final season of "Squid Game" concluded on its exclusive home at Netflix, "The reason I had Cate Blanchett in that scene at the end, it came from a place where I just wanted an impactful ending. It wasn't anything to hint at a season 4 or anything like that," Hwang said. The writer and director also told Netflix's in-house publication Tudum that he hired Blanchett because, well, she's the best!
"We thought having a woman as a recruiter would be more dramatic and intriguing. And as for why Cate Blanchett, she's just the best, with unmatched charisma. Who doesn't love her? So we were very happy to have her appear. We needed someone who could dominate the screen with just one or two words, which is exactly what she did. If Gong Yoo is the Korean Recruiter, I thought she would be the perfect fit as the American Recruiter, bringing a short but gripping and impactful ending to the story."
Beyond that, Hwang reminded the outlet that, back in season 1, the show's odious VIPs — characters who travel the world to watch different versions of this harrowing torture, for whatever reason — said the "Korean version" of the games happens to be the most fun. "It has always been the premise that these games are happening in other parts of the world because 'Squid Game' symbolizes the extreme competitive system within late capitalism," Hwang clarified. "So it's not only about Korea." He then went on to say, once again, that Blanchett's mere presence doesn't necessarily mean she'll be part of a spin-off, even though her "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" director David Fincher is reportedly working on said spin-off that takes place in the United States.
Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk says he doesn't necessarily envision a spin-off starring Cate Blanchett
In that same interview, Hwang Dong-hyuk broke down the ending of "Squid Game" and what it could mean for a future spin-off, but he did say something that maybe confirmed that he's not envisioning a spin-off starring Cate Blanchett. In fact, Hwang pointed to the guards who ensure that the games run smoothly as potentially fertile ground for a spin-off. "What kind of people are they behind the masks? What kind of personal relationships do they have with each other?" Hwang asked about the guards. "I have these vague ideas that I'm tossing around. If there were to be a spinoff, that would be about the Front Man or the Korean recruiter or what happens behind the masked guards." (Gong Yoo's aforementioned Korean recruiter dies in season 2 of "Squid Game," but I suppose a prequel isn't out of the question.)
It also feels notable that Lee Byung-hun's Front Man acknowledges Blanchett's American recruiter, especially now that Hwang has said that he thinks that the Front Man might have a new lease on life after the events of the series finale. In that episode, our protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who won the previous games, sacrifices his life to save Player 222, who happens to be a newborn baby (and the daughter of the former Player 222/Kim Jun-hee, played by Jo Yu-ri). In-ho witnesses this and ultimately delivers the baby to safety as the compound self-destructs, and Hwang specifically touches on this, so maybe we'll get a spin-off about a changed In-ho.
"By sacrificing himself, Gi-hun's actions have definitely touched something in In-ho's heart, maybe a very small sliver of hope that he had hidden deep down in his heart," Hwang mused. "I also think it may have triggered some shame in him, because that [sacrifice] was something he wasn't able to do for himself. With the gaming arena in Korea being completely ruined and seeing this baby who made it out of the game, there was a huge change within the Front Man, and I think that was triggered and brought about by Gi-hun's actions. I wanted that to be what the audience feels as well."
Will In-ho resume his role as the Front Man with the American games, with or without the presence of Cate Blanchett? Only time will tell. For now, "Squid Game" is streaming in its entirety on Netflix.