Over 400 Stunt Performers Made ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Even Deadlier

Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for “Squid Game” Season 2 

It’s weird to say that there are any “joys” to “Squid Game” given how sharply cynical director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s vision is for a gamified corporate organ-harvesting program — one that now has its own corporate-powered continuation, at that. But it is to the credit of the Netflix series that it always creates interesting and intricate variations in action, little moments where even us VIPs might feel less than entertained by the horror of the violence being done for our amusement.  

For Season 2, stunt coordinators Chung Seong-ho and Park Young-sick had their hands full with the demands of not just new games but with close quarters, inter-player fighting that is decidedly nastier, and a massive firefight between the players and guards. Making Season 2 feel just as horrifically violent as Season 1 required the “Squid Game” stunt team to lean into scale — whether that meant maximizing the overwhelming chaos of the dorm fight in Episode 7 or providing the kind of brutal focus and clarity that comes from the point of a cross going into someone’s face in Episode 6. 

IndieWire sent email questions to the stunt coordinators, who responded as a pair, about their work on Season 2. For both Park and Chung, every scenario, no matter how complicated or simple, starts from a consideration of the characters — what skills they’d realistically be bringing to the table and how they respond under pressure. The trick is to choreograph movements that portray character while upholding the series’ overall tone. 

“The overall vibe of fighting sequences in ‘Squid Game’ has a raw survival-action feel. For other characters that needed a more professional feel, like Hyun-ju [Park Sung-hoon] and the Front Man [Lee Byung-hun], we took their background, profession, and physical abilities into account, and went for action techniques inspired by various martial arts,” Chung and Park said. 

‘Squid Game’No Ju-han/Netflix

The expanded maze-like environment of the giant pastel staircase gave Park and Chung a great setting in which to capitalize on the sharp, professional movements of the ad-hoc commando squad of players fighting against the Masked Guards to break into the control room. They adjusted movements on site to take advantage of colorful opportunities for the players to get clever with how they find cover and move upwards, and castle-like stages for murdered guards to fall down. In both cases, maintaining a sense of direction — the challenge of the players fighting to get up — was key. 

“We checked the goal or destination of each character and thought about what happens along the way. Then, we planned action scenes that match the drama between the characters. After that, we worked with the special effects team to decide where the impact effects will happen,” Chung and Park said. 

That sounds simple enough, but it takes a village to pull off. For most of the show, Chung and Park called on BEST STUNT Team, the collective of around 40 stunt performers who won the Stunt Ensemble Emmy for “Squid Game” Season 1. But for the large-scale work in Season 2, they expanded their reach. “For additional stunt performers, we collaborated with approximately 400 stunt performers based in Korea,” Chung and Park said. 

‘Squid Game’ No Ju-han/Netflix

Especially in the early stages of the games, the coordinators must organize 40-50 stunt performers on camera at any given time. “Sometimes, adjustments were made based on camera angles or lighting conditions. There were also cases where we needed to make some modifications due to changes in character settings. For wire work, we coordinated with the lighting team in advance to check the lighting positions and to ensure there are no conflicts,” Chung and Park said. 

But some of the most precise storytelling work that the stunt team does is in the more — for lack of a better word — intimate clashes between players. The fight in the restroom required a deft hand for how petty, casual frustrations can turn deadly. “We had to show how the fight started and gradually escalated into something more intense,” Chung and Park said. “That sequence was particularly interesting.” 

As was the fight with tortured Masked Guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young), which the stunt team wanted to make as grounded as possible. “Since it involved rough fighting as a woman, we worked hard to ensure it didn’t appear overly exaggerated,” Chung and Park said. “Due to the nature of the series, the characters’ physical abilities and traits are important… We worked hard and filmed intensely, so we hope you enjoy watching it.”