The first trailer for the second season of Squid Game has been released, thrusting viewers back into the deadly arena where champion Seong Gi-hun has returned to play once more.

Three years after his victory in the lethal series of children’s games Gi-hun returns as Player 456 and is joined by hundreds of new players – and tries to lead them to safety.

The first season of the South Korean drama followed a group of 456 people, desperate and in debt, fighting to the death for a huge cash prize.

It became Netflix’s biggest ever series launch, streamed by 111 million users in its first 28 days.

The trailer opens as the sinister masked guards welcome a new cast of characters to the competition.

They are despatched for their first game, also familiar from season one: Red Light Green Light.

Despite Gi-hun’s efforts to coach the players across the finish line to safety, things take a lethal turn.

As in season one, the players get to vote to stop the game or keep playing. While Gi-hun encourages them to focus on “getting out of this place,” the players ignore his pleas.

“One more game,” they chant, as the cash prize fills a giant piggy-bank dangling above them.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk said: “Gi-hun’s endeavor to find out who these people are and why they do what they do is the core story of season two.”

Also returning is the black-masked mysterious Front Man, who oversees the games, and Hwang Jun-ho, the police detective that broke into the games last season to search for his missing brother.

Dong-hyuk previously said he felt “a lot of pressure” on how to make season two “even better” after the show’s runaway success.

Netflix has also announced that the final, third season will be released in 2025.

The second series of Squid Game will be released on Netflix on 26 December 2024.