Wi Ha-joon is returning for ‘Squid Game’ season 2, but how did he survive the first season?

Fans of Netflix’s Squid Game are no doubt celebrating the official announcement of new and returning actors for season two. However, one major question has been raised by the announcement: how did the police detective character, Wi Ha-joon’s Hwang Jun-ho, survive the events of the first season? As a huge fan of this show, I’m counting down my favorite theories about the actor’s seemingly inexplicable return.

Jun-ho’s Front Man confrontation

In case you need a reminder about the plot of Squid Game, it is about a mysterious organization that recruits cash-strapped contestants to compete in children’s games for a huge pot of cash. Only the twist is, if you lose in the game, you are killed by the people running the game.

In the series, Jun-ho infiltrates the mysterious island where the games are held in order to try and locate his long-lost brother. When the police detective eventually finds Front Man (the masked figure who runs the macabre contest), he shoots him in the shoulder. Front Man then takes off his mask to reveal he is, in fact, the detective’s long-lost brother, Lee Byung-hun’s Hwang In-ho.

This confrontation culminates on a cliff overlooking the water in which Jun-ho is surrounded by not only his own brother but the Squid Game henchmen, as well. After Jun-ho shoots In-ho in the shoulder, the Front Man asks his brother to join him or face death, essentially. When the police detective refuses, the Front Man shoots his brother in the shoulder and he falls into the ocean. 

At a glance, it appears that the detective has died, but this supposed death is conveniently off-screen. All we see is Jun-ho getting shot in the shoulder, him falling off the cliff, and then the splash in the water in another shot. We don’t even see Jun-ho hitting the water proper, mind you, just the resulting ripples. 

How did Jun-ho survive that fall?

One simple explanation might be that Jun-ho swam to a shore after the Front Man and all the guards left the area. He also could have grabbed onto the cliff itself, on a dangling root perhaps, with the splash we see simply being the gun he dropped. What’s more, maybe the message that the police detective sent to headquarters actually went through after all, and a police rescue team picked up Jun-ho by boat after the Front Man and his henchmen left. On the other hand, maybe Jun-ho really did die in that scene and the actor is merely returning for a second season to do flashback scenes in order to explore more of the Front Man’s back story.

Another interesting theory put forward by the YouTube channel Michael Jae in his video, How Jun-ho Survived His Death in Squid Game, is that the Front Man intentionally let his brother off easy and wanted him to survive. Seeing as how the Front Man was so calculating in the scene that he correctly surmised his detective brother was out of bullets in his gun, it seems far-fetched that such a formidable foe would have such terrible aim as to only graze his brother’s shoulder. What’s more, the shoulder shot could have acted as a force to spin the detective off balance, making him fall off the cliff and into the ocean, which would have given him his best chance of survival. Indeed, perhaps the Front Man himself is still a prisoner to the organization so he still had to make it seem as if he dealt a lethal blow to his brother, even if he didn’t want to.

This theory makes sense when you consider how difficult it would be for Jun-ho to swim to shore or cling to a cliffside without the benefit of the Front Man perhaps intentionally looking the other way so that the detective can get away. It is clear in a subsequent scene, in which the Front Man sees his brother’s face in his own reflection, that he still cares about his sibling.

Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see whether Jun-ho ends up teaming up with the main character in the show, Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun, to take down the nefarious organization in season two. If you’re curious about other returning and new cast members for Squid Game season two, we have a complete breakdown of all the actors involved.

A specific release date has not been announced for Squid Game season two, but it is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2024, according to Variety.