All the deleted scenes from Squid Game that would have totally changed the show

It could have been so different!


Squid Game is Netflix’s most successful show of all time, and season two just confirmed that for us. After breaking practically ever record under the sun, the show has won its rightful crown as Netflix royalty. However, that’s not to say that it’s perfect, by any means. Squid Game is filled with plot holes, editing errors and all sorts of chaos that might go unnoticed on a first watch. It also had a lot of deleted scenes that were removed, and unscripted moments that did make the cut, deviating from its original plan. Here is a rundown of all the deleted scenes from Squid Game that would have totally changed the show, even just a little.

Season one had an alternate ending where Gi-hun got on the plane

via Netflix

The season one finale of Squid Game was a real turning point for Gi-hun, and instead of getting on the plane to join the Squid Game creators, he turned around and went back to his life in South Korea. However, this almost wasn’t the case. The show creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed that the first idea was for him to get on the plane, but soon changed his mind and the scene was changed.

“We came to the conclusion that the question we wanted to propose could not be done if he left on the plane. The question that we want to answer – why has the world come to what it is now? – can only be answered or can only be proposed if Gi-hun turned back and walked towards the camera.”

Sae-byeok couldn’t stop laughing

via Netflix

This is kind of the opposite of a deleted scene, although it was almost cut out. When Gi-hun accidentally knocked over Sae-byeok in episode one of Squid Game season one, he improvised the moment he returned her spilt coffee to her. The actor who played Sae-byeok couldn’t stop laughing at Lee Jung-jae’s horrible attempt to fix her coffee, even though the moment was unscripted. She kept her head down and didn’t reveal her face to the cameras once. However, the producers decided to keep this version in.

This scene was deleted after the show was aired

squid game 2 deleted scenes

via Netflix

In season one, Squid Game had an actual nightmare with the card the recruiter gave to Gi-hun. The iconic card with the three Squid Game shapes on it had a number on the back to ring if you wanted to participate in the game. This number was actually a real phone number and a poor businesswoman in Korea was subjected to thousands of calls from the show’s viewers. She ended up having to contact Netflix and ask them to remove the number, which they did. She claimed she had to delete over 3,000 numbers from her phone.

So many details could have been lost because Squid Game was originally written as a movie?!

This last one is actually crazy, but did you know Squid Game was originally written as a movie? The show’s creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed to Screenrant that he “wrote the script for it as a feature film in 2009 in the beginning,” which took him “eight or nine months” to perfect. It was only “later in 2019” that he changed the film to be two seasons of a TV show. It’s actually crazy to think about how much detail we could have lost if the show had been a film, or even two films instead.

Squid Game 2 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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