How Should a Sequel Deal with Beloved But Dead Characters?

There is nothing more dramatic than death in legendary stories. And we’ve learned that often the most logical, satisfying, and thought-provoking stories do not have happy endings -at least not for all the heroes. But what do you do when you’ve killed off your most popular characters and then audience screams for more?

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The Star Wars franchise deals with this dilemma in a number of ways. In several of the movies, dead characters were brought back as ghosts. In The Rise of Skywalker, we saw characters come back after we thought they were dead (Chewbacca) and characters we were sure were dead, too (Palpatine). Darth Maul popped up in Solo out of thin air, continuity be damned. On the other hand, they are bringing back Cassian Andor by setting the TV series Andor earlier in the timeline, as a prequel. That’s a least believable.

However, Squid Game is a different story. Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk never anticipated his series would be such a hit that a second season would be requested. A prequel with the same characters would be impossible because none of them knew what they were getting into. A sequel with the same characters would bring them back from the dead.

“I want to revive Ji-young, but her best friend Sae-byeok also died, so I’m thinking what to do,” he told a joint news conference in Seoul with the drama’s crew and cast.

“So many characters died, especially beloved ones died. I’m sorry I killed them so easily; I didn’t know this was coming.”   

Is there any way that could happen? What do you think? -via reddit

POLL: How should casting be handled for Squid Game’s second season?

  • Do not bring back any character who died. Tell a different story.
  • There should be some weird way to explain that they didn’t really die in the first season.
  • Make them ghosts.
  • Bring them back only in previously unseen flashbacks.
  • Bring them back without explanation. A second season is just fan service anyway.
  • I don’t care; I just want to see the survey results.

Source: neatorama

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