When this June 27 Netflix releases the third season of The squid game, The feeling probably exceeds simple nostalgia at the end of a series of adventures. Because it will imply the closure of a phenomenon that, since its launch in 2021, overflowed the screen to reach another category: become one of the great global successes of the last decade.
This fiction of survival and dystopia, with its doses of violence and mystery, achieved something that seemed unthinkable before streaming. He crossed languages, borders and algorithms to put South Korea, whose productions were reserved for the niche consumer, on the world map. The most watched series of the most popular planet platform for the first time was not American. Not even English speaking: two years after the success of Parasite In the Oscars, the Asian country played again in the major leagues in the audiovisual world.
You did not have to see Korean fiction or know what an idol is – the term with which actors and entertainment stars are known in Korea – to be part of the mania. The squid game It is simply inescapable. The strength of its twist, the iconic design of the set and costumes, and a cruelly addictive plot quickly returned to the series “which everyone speaks”.
For Lee Jung-Jae, the actor who plays Seong Gi-Hun, the protagonist morally frayed from the series, The squid game It was the opportunity to obtain something that until then had not even raised: the worldwide fame. Without speaking English or having gone through Hollywood, the 52 -year -old performer became the first Asian to win an Emmyhe arrived at the universe Star Wars -Ity of a Jedi teacher in the series The Acolyte– And he became a celebrity in the most remote places on the planet thanks to the event of the series.
“It’s something I had ever dreamed. I could never have imagined the success that the show finally had,” Lee says. “The director and the whole team hoped that the series was fine in the United States and in the occasional country, but that was all. The scale really surprised us. Say that The squid game I had a huge impact on my life would be short. “
Lee Jung-Jae was already an outstanding figure in the entertainment of his native South Korea long before the series. Two of the ten most viewed films in the history of the country tell it among its casts, figures that give true dimension of the magnetism that it exercises among the local public. Signing it is a safe bet: people recognize their name and know what to expect.
Scene of the third season of El Game del Calamar. Actor by chance
With more than thirty films to his credit, in addition to prominent appearances on television, Lee is not exactly a newcomer. But it must be said that it came to act almost by chance. Born and raised in Seoul, his first flirting with the cameras was as a model, when a cazatalentos discovered him while working in a cafeteria. Lee’s appeal was just with the profile that his agency sought and quickly hired him. The catwalks thus became their first school.
He worked a couple of years as a model, but the performance would soon win the pulse. After making your television debut in 1993 in the dramatic series Dinosaur Teacher, Lee became a national star practically overnight with just 21 years. And from there in more, things would do nothing but go up: more series roles and a first appearance on the big screen, in the well received The Young Man.
For 1995, Lee was one of the new Korean television gallants. Your role in the series Sandyin which he gave life to the silent and devoted bodyguard of the protagonist, stole sighs throughout the country. His popularity was such that he went from being a secondary character to adding more and more screen time with each new episode and becoming a favorite of the people.
Lee Jung – Jae was a model and Galán of the South Korea TV.To say that the squid game had a huge impact on my life would be to fall short.
The bitterness of the end
Today it is difficult to imagine it as the early gallant who knew how to be. In The squid game He plays a poor devil who risks his life every episode. Together with other dozens of people with unpayable debts, they participate in challenges that can make them billionaires in case of winning, or just another statistic if they fail and die. Lee (as Seong, player 456) looks exhausted, silent and bruised. He even lost weight to play paper in the last episodes.
“It was very hard and I felt a certain bitterness in my heart in this season. When you think about the nature of the games in which the characters participate and the extremes that some arrive in their despair … It is a show, but it makes us reflect on how brutal real life can be ”, Lee says.
“At the same time, you find other characters that get the best of themselves and you want you to succeed. Without a doubt, The squid game It was a unique challenge due to the great range of emotions that demanded me to cross at the same time. ”
In the series, Lee Jung – Jae plays a man who risks his life in each episode. The series makes you think of things that you had not raised.
Outside the Radar of the West, Lee learned to harvest immense popularity in South Korea. I could be a lingged king –The Thieves, From 2012, it was for a long time the second most watched film in the history of the country- or cult of cult. The romantic drama The seaof 2000, starring Lee, he became forgotten to become a favorite of his repertoire thanks to an American remake: The Lake Housecon Keanu Reeves y Sandra Bullock. The original title liked it so much that he called Lee to his luxury Italian restaurant chain in Seoul, A passion project in which the interior design took over, the career he had studied before the performance took off.
Hwang Dong-Hyuk, the creator of The squid game, He recruited Lee in 2021. He chose him as the protagonist because he wanted to “destroy the charismatic image of his previous roles.” The Galan of Korea was going to have to put in the mud for his arrival in Netflix.
“All of us who were part of the series took the challenge very seriously”, Says Lee on the responsibility of starring in a show that sinks at the lowest of human nature to explore how much we are willing to do for money.
In this last season, Seong Gi-Hun will go more thoroughly than ever in his mission of stopping the macabre games, although the road is far from being simple. A frustrated uprising, a villain willing to everything and a group of allies capable of turning from one moment to another are Seong’s letters, willing to give his last battle.
The series is a fierce criticism of capitalism, but many fans have concentrated on the show and action, and Little in the exploitation of the most needy to denounce. It was even the inspiration in 2024 of Beast Games, the survival reality of the popular YouTuber Mrbeast, in which 1,000 candidates competed for 5 million dollars – the greatest prize in history for a contest of this type – without another premise that people are still willing to see strangers betray themselves for money.
“I think those who truly love this series do not do it because it is entertaining or by the message, but for both: They love that at the same time that is completely addictive, it makes you think of things that you had not raised“Lee explains. And he adds:” Many wanted to join the cast in these last seasons due to the messages of the series, and between each episode the actors had discussions on how to take them better to the screen. “
But what happens now that the games come to an end? The show’s legacy is still uncertain. Will it become a classic for all time, or a period phenomenon? The message in which Lee believes with so much fervor will be what remains of the series, or will it be the violence of your most raw scenes? The actor does not have the answers, but trusts that the third season will resolve all the doubts that were raised in the previous installment.
“I hope this season inspires viewers as much as it inspired me. I know they are curious to know what will happen, but the wait is increasingly short,” he says with a smile.
“Of course, The squid game It is much more than a show for me: it has expanded the horizon of my career in ways that I could never have dreamed. I only have to thank fans for the new opportunities that this has opened in my life.”