Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae wins Best Male Performance at Independent Spirit Awards

After becoming the first Korean actor to nab the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a drama series, Lee Jung-jae has won the Best Male Performance in a scripted series for Squid Game at the recently held 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California.

The actor was nominated along with Michael Greyeyes from Rutherford Falls, Ashley Thomas from THEM: Covenant, Murray Bartlett from The White Lotus, and Olly Alexander from It’s a Sin. But as we know, the Squid Game star trumped them all to win the honor.

---

Lee Jung-jae teases Squid Game Season 2

Unfortunately, the actor was unable to attend the ceremony in person due to scheduling issues, but he did mark his presence via a pre-recorded video. In the video, he thanked the fans of the Netflix series for “loving” its characters and storyline.

Before bidding his farewell, he also dropped a major update about the upcoming Season 2 of the series:

“I know there are lots of Squid Game fans in the world, and what you’re all curious about the most is when Season 2 will come out. It’s on the way! Stay tuned.”

This is not the first award that the popular show has won once since its debut. Apart from its historic win at the SAG awards — where Lee Jung-jae, Jung Ho-yeon, and the stunt ensemble won awards — the series has been reigning at all the award ceremonies, including the Gotham Awards, People's Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards, etc.

---

Seong Gi-hun is all set to return in Season 2

The series sees the character of Seong Gi-hun, a divorced man addicted to gambling, who participates in the games to settle his steadily mounting debt. But to his horror, he discovers that the seemingly simple childish games are deadly, and losing one means a certain death. In the end, we see Gi-hun deciding not to board the plane and vowing to find the roots of the game to end it for good this time.

In November last year, when Squid Game Season 2 hadn’t even been greenlit by the streamer, Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director of the blockbuster series, had confirmed that its leading star would definitely return next season.

“I will promise you this, Gi-hun will come back,” Hwang told the Associated Press. “He will do something for the world.”