Squid Game Hwang Dong-hyuk shared as he started writing the ending of Season 3, he started to think more about what he wanted to deliver with the ending of this story. He has teased there was initially a different finale.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hwang said he originally wrote an ending where Player 456, Seong Gi-hun, leaves the deadly games behind for good. That's a sharp contrast to the version that made it to screen, where Gi-hun sacrifices his life in the end for the new Player 222.