One of the biggest twists in Squid Game Season 1 was the revelation that the villainous Front Man wasn’t just idealistic police officer Hwang Jun-ho’s (Wi Ha-joon) long-lost brother, but that he was being played by iconic action star Lee Byung-hun. What did it mean that Squid Game creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk tapped such a global superstar in such an important cameo role? Would we learn more about how Jun-ho’s beloved (and presumed dead) brother In-ho became the villainous overseer of death games? Most pertinently, though: Would Lee Byung-hun’s Front Man have a bigger role to play in Season 2 of the hit Netflix show?
As it happens Squid Game Season 2 not only gives Lee’s role far more to do, but also the tantalizing opportunity to play the games themselves…
**Spoilers for Squid Game Season 2, now streaming on Netflix**
Squid Game Season 2 Episode 3 “001” ends with the big reveal that the Front Man has re-entered the games as Player 001, using “Oh Young-Il” as a pseudonym. It not only means that he gets to cast the deciding vote on whether or not to continue the games â naturally, he votes to stay â but it also allows him to gain the trust of Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae). For the rest of the season, Player 001 stays close to Player 456, going so far as to help him launch a rebellion that he eventually crushes in a final act of betrayal.
While this is going on, In-ho’s brother Jun-ho continues to lead the external mission to find the island where the games go down. Jun-ho is possessed by the need to find out what happened to the older brother he once idolized. As Squid Game Season 2 goes on, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk peppers in more and more details about the Front Man’s past life. And it sounds like In-ho was transformed into the Front Man by his experience playing the games and losing his wife.
“In Season 1, I played the Front Man as a cameo. Also, the character was limited to an operational role with the mask on. And in Season 2, the mask comes off and I get to tell more of his story,” Lee Byung-hun said in a roundtable interview Decider attended. “Why he first came into the Squid Game in the first place, how he has become this extremely pessimistic person.”
Player 001 approaches Gi-hun in Squid Game Season 2 Episode 4 “Six Legs” and explains his decision to stay in the games. According to him, his wife needs a liver transplant for acute cirrhosis. Complicating matters is the fact that she is also pregnant and refuses to abort the pregnancy. He details his struggle to find a doctor who will treat her and a slippery slide into extreme debt. When one of his oldest vendors gifted him a large loan as a favor, it was interpreted as bribery and he lost the job he’d dedicated his life to. “These games were my last hope,” he said.
It’s compelling stuff and it lines up with what little we’ve learned about the real In-ho from Jun-ho’s storyline. In-ho won the games in 2015 and only entered in the hopes of getting enough money to save his sick wife. The difference is we know that eventually his wife did die and In-ho disappeared promptly thereafter.
“He creates this fake persona, almost a new character, and deceives those that he plays the games with,” Lee said. “So ultimately, it’s almost as if you get three different types of characters within a single character: there’s the Front Man, there’s In-ho, and then there’s Young-il.”
“As an actor, to be able to play a character who has such a complex and multifaceted sides to him is both challenging and something very, very enjoyable to do as a performer.”
So how much of Young-il is a reflection of the old In-ho and how much of it is a cunning disguise created by the nihilistic Front Man? How did Lee perfectly pepper in the right combination of charismatic and chilling? “That was something that the director and I would have constant conversations about so that we could just make it just right.”
The post ‘Squid Game’ Star Lee Byung-hun Spills on the Front Man’s Juicy Season 2 Twist — Joining the Games as Player 001: “The Mask Comes Off” appeared first on Decider.
