Put down the cocktail — or knife — and stop reading right now if you haven’t watched Season 3 of “Squid Game.” Spoilers lie ahead; you’ve been warned!
Aside from a few half-decent acts, the Front Man of the titular games in “Squid Game” — a mysterious man and former police officer named Hwang In-ho, who’s played on Hwang Dong-hyuk’s massively popular Netflix series by popular Korean actor Lee Byung-hun — is a pretty bad guy, all things considered. Not only is he the guy in charge of games where desperate people fight to the death over money that they need badly enough to, you know, fight to the death in the first place, but he does some seriously not-good things throughout his time on the series. He shoots his own half-brother, Hwang Jun-ho — a detective played by Wi Ha-joon — at the end of season 1 after Jun-ho tracks down the mysterious island compound where the games take place, and again, he’s in charge of these awful games in the first place. Still, something he does in Season 3 of “Squid Game” is particularly vile.
Here’s some context. After the previous year’s winner Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) tries to infiltrate the games in a back-to-back appearance to dismantle them — which happens in Season 2 — In-ho, the Front Man, decides to have a little fun with Gi-hun and pretend to be player 001. (This is a repeated “Squid Game” twist, but there’s nothing to be done about that.) Pretending to be a fellow player — and Gi-hun’s ally, at that — is insidious enough, but after the players stage a mutiny during the Season 2 finale of the series, In-ho quietly slinks back to his managerial position and abandons all of them. That’s when he makes an offer to Gi-hun, unmasking himself in the process … which is that Gi-hun could have a huge advantage in the final game if he simply agrees to commit several murders in quick succession and in cold blood. An added twist? This is exactly how In-ho won his own game in 2015.
In-ho tells Gi-hun he can eliminate all of his opponents — which is how In-ho won his game
After inviting Gi-hun to his private chamber, In-ho unmasks himself — shocking the man who once believed that In-ho was his friend and ally — and makes Gi-hun an offer. Specifically, he gives the 456th player a knife and tells him that now is the perfect time to take down all of his opponents. See, just before this clandestine meeting, all of the players, except Gi-hun, ate and drank heavily, so they’re all sleeping soundly … and furthermore, the rest of the players would be happy to take down former winner Gi-hun and the baby in his care, an infant born to the fallen Player 222 Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri).Â
Gi-hun ultimately can’t follow through with killing any of his opponents while they sleep, but as we see in a flashback, In-ho not-so-happily took that offer and ran with it (which is to say that he killed the other players in their sleep but was horrified to do so). Gi-hun can’t fully match In-ho’s depravity, which is probably a good test of his character; while it’s tempting to knock out a bunch of other players and conquer the final game, especially with a baby in tow, he just can’t. We knew the Front Man was evil, but this is definitely his most evil move on the show — to recreate his own victory by asking another player to do it, whether it’s some sort of twisted tradition or not.
Will the Front Man get his own Squid Game spin-off?
The flashback to In-ho’s victorious murder spree during his own game is one of the biggest looks we’ve gotten at his past … so will we keep learning about the man who becomes the Front Man? We already know David Fincher is working on a “Squid Game” spin-off, but during an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” to promote “Squid Game” Season 3 in June 2025, Lee Byung-hun winked at the possibility of a Front Man-centered spin-off. When Fallon took out the “yes” and “no” buttons that players use to vote in the TV show — “O” meaning yes and “X” meaning no, leading to a point where Lee presses both to get out of multiple questions — the late-night host asked about a standalone Front Man show. Lee went ahead and pressed the “O” button. “I’m not sure about that,” Lee clarified. “But there’s a possibility … and we’ll never know what happens.” Cryptic!
Still, based on what else he said about playing the Front Man on “Squid Game,” it seems like Lee loves playing in this universe. “When I first read the script, it was a very interesting story with a very unique structure but at the same time it was experimental so I thought either it’d be a huge hit or a complete flop,” Lee told Fallon. Obviously, it was a success … and Lee is happy about that for many reasons.
“‘Squid Game’ is a Korean story by a Korean director with Korean actors and Korean language so when I first came to L.A. and New York for Squid Game, I was so shocked by the fans’ reaction. I’m so proud of it,” he concluded. You can watch “Squid Game,” include Lee’s anchoring performance, on Netflix now.
