With "Squid Game" Season 2 ups the ante and introduces a new lineup of harrowing challenges, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk recently shared which game stood out as his personal favorite.

Known for combining childhood nostalgia with life-or-death consequences, every game in the new season carries its own emotional weight and psychological complexity.

However, one game captured the vision of the director of “Squid Game” more than any other.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the Season 2 finale of "Squid Game," streaming now on Netflix.

"Squid Game" season 2 brought back several familiar games while presenting a series of new, intense challenges. Ddakji, the game The Salesman (Gong Yoo) used in seasons 1 and 2 to recruit potential players, is back, setting the tone for the season's high-stakes dynamic.

The season opened with a new addition: "Bread and the Lottery", introduced in Episode 1. In this recruiting game, the Vendor buys 100 pastries and 100 lottery tickets, offering them to seemingly random individuals in the public, creating an unsettling sense of randomness and desperation in broad daylight.

Later in the same episode, a brutal confrontation takes place in the third game where the Salesman pits Mr. Kim against Woo-seok. Their fate depends on Jokenpô – better known as Rock, Paper, Scissors – a deceptively simple game with deadly consequences in this context.

Another universally recognizable game, Russian Roulette, makes its harrowing debut. Notorious for its life-or-death stakes, this game is presented by The Salesman as a means for him and Gi-hun to resolve their escalating conflict on their own, leaving the outcome entirely up to fate.

Of course, fans of the first season will immediately recognize the creepy return of Red Light, Green Light, the iconic childhood game overseen by the menacing doll Young-hee. His presence serves as both a callback to the series' roots and a reminder of the ever-present danger lurking in every seemingly simple challenge.

Spectators also saw the six-legged pentathlon, which forced participants to perform a series of interconnected tasks that require teamwork, precision and unwavering trust in their partners. In Mingle, alliances became both a lifeline and a potential pitfall, as players were forced to navigate changing social dynamics under extreme pressure. Meanwhile, the Special Round (Lights Out) plunged the arena into complete darkness, stripping away any sense of safety and forcing players to rely on instinct and raw survival skills amid the chaos.

When it comes to the brutal and emotionally charged games of the second season of "Squid Game," creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has a clear favorite.

“I would say the pentathlon,” he said Diversity. “Not only was it the most challenging to shoot, but I think after we finished shooting it was the most fun I had. And especially because you get five smaller games within one round of matches.”

"Just like in the first season, I wanted to show these real children's games that Koreans grew up with, especially the ones that I grew up with," he continued. "With the way I showed the world five different games in one round, I'd say the pentathlon was probably the most satisfying to shoot."

Within a month of its release, “Squid Game” became Netflix's most-watched series, breaking records as the first Korean-language and foreign-language series to receive a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nomination. Riding the wave of its unprecedented success, Netflix expanded the franchise with a reality competition series inspired by the show, premiering in November 2023.

"Because I made the first season without much thought about making a second season, when it was decided that we would make a second season, the pressure was really huge," said director Hwang IndieWire. “I thought to myself: am I really going to be able to pull this off? Will I be able to create or write something that surpasses the first season?"

"But when I started writing, and I got into the story of Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returning to gaming with his own motives, it actually went a lot better than I thought it would," he continued. "I was able to create a story that I thought was more intriguing, come up with more interesting characters, and come up with more original and intriguing gameplay."