Lee Jung-jae's Seong Gi-hun returns to the deadly arena as Player 456 and tries to save the lives of hundreds of new contestants with his experience in Squid Game Season 2 teaser, dropped by Netflix on Friday.

The one-minute-52-second-long trailer opens with the sinister masked guards welcoming hundreds of new contestants to the competition where they must play a series of so-called children’s games to win USD 4.56 million at the end. However, those who fail to complete the tasks are instantly killed.

Seong Gi-hun returns to this dystopian survival game three years after winning the competition in Season 1. He is joined by hundreds of new players and despite his best efforts to save them, chaos inevitably breaks out.

The contestants are sent to play their first game, one that fans will recognise from Season 1: Red Light-Green Light.

In this game, players must move toward the finish line while a giant mechanical doll faces away, stopping immediately when it turns around – or risk being shot on the spot.

Gi-hun, who made it through the game in Season 1, tries to guide the players to safety. However, the situation turns grim when a player moves after being told a bee has landed on her, and is then shot in the head.

As in Season 1, the players get to vote to stop the game or keep playing. Though Gi-hun urges them to focus on "escaping this place" they ignore him, chanting, "one more game" as they watch the cash prize pile up in a giant piggy bank overhead.

Besides Lee Jung-jae, other returning cast members include Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun and Gong Yoo. New cast members include Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Lee Jin-uk, Park Sung-hoon, Yang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-sim, Lee David, Choi Seung-hyun, Roh Jae-won, Jo Yu-ri and Won Ji-an.

Hwang Dong-hyuk returns as writer, director and executive producer for the upcoming season, while Chae Kyoung-sun serves as the production designer.

Squid Game Season 2 is set to premiere on Netflix on December 26. The streaming platform earlier announced that Squid Game will conclude with a third and final season, slated to release in 2025.

Squid Game Season 1 introduced viewers to the K-drama’s deadly game, where citizens were forced to gamble their lives. It went on to become Netflix’s most-watched series, with a record 1.65 billion views in just 28 days after its September 17, 2021 release. Lee Jung-jae made history as the first Asian man to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2022 Emmys and the first to win for a non-English show. Hwang Dong-hyuk also became the first Asian to win an Emmy for directing a drama series.