AFTER MORE THAN three years away, Squid Game finally returned for a second round with the release of its season 2 on December 26, 2024. The show picks up where things left off as our hero, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) works obsessively to use the massive wealth he amassed from winning the games in season 1 in an attempt to dismantle the games entirely. That alone would be enough for a fun and compelling second season, but like any good story returning for a sequel, Squid Game knows that you always have to raise the stakes and add more.
So, while the show’s main storyline follows Gi-hun and a deceptive evil plan from the villainous Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), Squid Game also introduces a number of subplots and new characters in the new iteration of the game. There are tons of compelling and interesting new stories, but perhaps the most interesting of all are the players who we meet and almost immediately learn to hate.
In Squid Game season 2, that’s a purple-haired man named Choi Su-bong. He’s labeled as Player 230, but tons of people recognize him in the game as a rapper who uses the name “Thanos” (Yes, a reference to the Marvel villain). Thanos was the second-place finisher in a hip-hop competition show (he forgot his lyrics in the finals), but we first meet him in an interaction with player 333 (Lee Myung-gi, aka MG Coin). We learn here that 333/MG Coin was actually some kind of Mr. Beast/Roaring Kitty hybrid YouTuber influencer who recommended a shoddy cryptocurrency and then disappeared off the face of the earth; Thanos was one of many who invested heavily in it and fell into extreme debt.
Due to this, we first see Thanos and his friend Nam-gyu (player 124, played by Roh Jae-won) confronting 333; they got ripped off in a crypto scam, and we have a bit of sympathy for them. But seeing how Thanos and Nam-gyu operate—especially once under the influence of some undisclosed drugs—quickly changes the game. Not only are they incredibly annoying, but they’re reckless, abusive, and cruel as well. Thanos is incredibly cocky, a mediocre reality TV star who acts with reckless abandon like he’s the greatest person to ever walk the earth.
In short? It’s incredibly frustrating, but it’s a character working out exactly how he’s designed to work. If you’re annoyed and frustrated by Thanos and Nam-gyu, you’re feeling exactly how Squid Game wants you to feel. The fact that we even eventually land on MG Coin/333’s side of the beef tells us all we need to know about just how annoying Thanos turns out to eventually be. And to that we say job well done.
Choi Su-bong/”Thanos,” aka Player 230, is played by Choi Seung-hyun aka T.O.P. in Squid Game season 2
Player 230, also known as “Thanos” or his given name Choi Su-bong, is played by actor Choi Seung-hyun. Seung-hyun is an experienced actor (though Squid Game season 2 is his first project in the better part of a decade), but he’s best known for his music persona as T.O.P., a rapper in the South Korean boyband BigBang, which he led until he departed it in 2023. BigBang is one of Asia’s most popular musical groups and one of the most popular boy bands in the world; as their de facto front man, T.O.P. has amassed more than 18 million followers on Instagram. American audiences may only be meeting him for the first time in Squid Game, but he is an exceptionally famous performer.
One of his other acting projects, interestingly, was a 2009 series called Iris, which he starred in alongside Lee Byung-hun, who Squid Game fans know as the Front Man.
Part of the reason for T.O.P.’s lengthy gap in acting projects is that he served his mandatory South Korean military time and also faced a charge of Marijuana use (which is illegal to use recreationally in South Korea). He was eventually placed on probation at the conclusion of the case, after pleading guilty in 2017, and after his case, at one point had a non-lethal overdose on tranquilizers. After this, he was blackballed from the Korean film and television industry for quite some time—until Squid Game cast him in the key role in season 2.
“I feel that it took him a lot of guts, in a way, to portray a character, especially someone who shares a lot of similarities that are quite negative to him as a person too,” the show’s creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk said in an interview with People. “So I think it took him a lot of courage to take on that role.”
He continued, praising the musician and actor’s return to the screen.
“Despite the long hiatus, I have to say, as a director, he performed very impressively and I’m very satisfied with what he did with the character,” Hwang said.
We probably won’t see much more of T.O.P. in Squid Game season 3, but he put his all into the character in season 2—and it’s a performance we’ll certainly be remembering.
