Squid Game Season 2 BTS Moments That Make Us Love Thanos Even More

"Squid Game" Season 2 ends without anyone winning the big prize of 45.6 billion won — but there's a clear winner when it comes to who won over viewers' hearts. Choi Su-bong, aka Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun, who went by T.O.P. in the boy band BigBang), may have been a jerk, but, more importantly, he was also very funny. With his distinct purple hair and multicolored nail polish, he lives up to his rap name, which harkens back to the big threat from the early era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He lives up to his villainous moniker by pushing people to their deaths during Red Light, Green Light, and threatening others to vote to stay in the game, putting more people in danger each round.

In "Squid Games," Thanos certainly has a dark side, and that goes for the actor who plays him, too, having been previously convicted for marijuana usage. However, that darkness quickly dissipates when you check out some of the behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the second season. Despite the terrifying nature of the series, it looks like everyone's having a blast while shooting it — especially Choi.

Sadly, Thanos is dead by the end of "Squid Game" Season 2, so unless there are flashbacks, we likely won't be seeing him again. That's all right though, as fans can see a little more of Choi's fun character in these various clips and photos.

A new wrinkle gets added to "Squid Game" in Season 2, where the players can vote after each game to determine whether to leave right then and there and split the winnings they've accumulated amongst themselves or keep going to try to win more cash. This quickly leads to divisions and existential crises within some of the contestants who want more money but also don't want to put their lives on the line further. At the center of all this, there's Thanos, who continually votes to stay in the game after losing all of his money in a cryptocurrency scam.

Netflix Korea released a blooper and behind-the-scenes reel showing off a new side of "Squid Game," and in it we see Choi Seung-hyun cast one of these votes. It seems to be the very first round of voting following Red Light, Green Light, where he presses the button and does a celebratory motion. In the episode, right after Thanos votes, he's interrupted by Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who tries to convince everyone else to vote to end the games. However, that doesn't happen right away in the clip, so after Choi Seung-hyun gives his little "Woot," he runs amusingly over to his side.

There's a good chance Choi knew his goofy little run after voting wouldn't be used, since Gi-hun enters the picture shortly after. There's also a clip afterward of Choi turning around to look at Gi-hun speaking, which is what wound up in the episode. Still, we wish there was at least one scene in "Squid Game" Season 2 where we could see Thanos running, because it's pretty adorable.

Thanos is a very animated character. Some could argue this made the character the worst new addition to "Squid Game" Season 2 because he almost seemed too silly to be a genuine threat at times. However, one does have to respect the level of commitment Choi Seung-hyun maintained to make Thanos seem like a real person at the very least.

Unlike the more grounded characters, Thanos uses a lot of hand gestures and sudden movements, and at one point in Netflix Korea's behind-the-scenes footage, we see Choi working on his moves. He walks in a semicircle around the dormitory, and if you listen closely, you can hear him mumbling his lines while working on his gesticulations.

It's neat to see the actor's process, making sure his lines coincide with an appropriate movement. It's also a little funny to see Thanos behaving so quietly when he's ordinarily the loudest character in whatever "Squid Game" scene he's part of. But we appreciate the commitment to the craft and the work Choi put into ensuring that anytime Thanos was on screen, audiences were captivated by his every move.

The behind-the-scenes video has a lot of alternate takes and footage of Choi Seung-hyun practicing his lines, but we get our first genuine blooper during the pentathlon. Before the game starts in the show, everyone needs to break up into groups of five. Thanos has his eyes set on Se-mi (Won Ji-an) joining his team because she's very attractive, but she'll only do it if he also takes her friend, the meek Min-su (Lee David). Despite Min-su not being perceived as "cool" (there's an intriguing fan theory suggesting he's actually a VIP), Thanos still welcomes him to his group by bringing him in for a hug and saying, "Welcome to the Thanos World."

However, it apparently took some practice to get it just right. In the video, Thanos watches a crew member show him how to do a specialized handshake before bringing Min-su onto the team. When Choi goes to do it himself, after doing the handshake, he stumbles over "Thanos World" while trying to perform another hand gesture. Like we said before, Thanos is very animated, and, clearly, it was difficult at times for Choi to know when to do what.

In the blooper, Choi stumbles by doing the handshake first and then saying his line. In the final shot that was used in Season 2, Episode 4 — "Six Legs" — he says his "Thanos World" line first and then ends with the handshake segueing into a hug. If nothing else, it's a good reminder to try to switch things up if they're just not working.

"Squid Game" Season 2, Episode 5 — "One More Game" — contains a montage of various teams going through the six-legged race and the accompanying mini-games. It's a fun sequence, but it also means we don't get to see much of Thanos and his crew actually competing. While the show only features a few short snippets of them competing while Thanos dances and looks completely out of it, there's plenty of unused Thanos footage that shows how much of both a captain and cheerleader he really was.

One thing the teams quickly figure out during this challenge is that they need to learn to step in unison; otherwise, they'll trip over each other. Thanos is definitely the loudest of the bunch, counting his team to ensure they all step when they should. There's another moment where he talks to his teammates about something, though, to be fair, it's unclear if this is coming from Thanos, the Squid Game contestant, or Choi Seung-hyun, the actor.

Some of Thanos' leadership moments make it into the show's montage, but it's brief. It's a shame, because it does show off a different side to the character. He's still obviously drugged out of his mind, but he's able to bring the best out of his team and help them advance to the next round.

The six-legged race has many moving parts to it. Each team is tied together by the legs and must walk in a circle together, competing in various challenges along the route. With only five minutes to win all of the mini-games and cross the finish line, there are many ways for this challenge to go wrong. Of course, we see Thanos' team succeed in the montage, but that doesn't mean the actors didn't have problems adhering to the rules on their own.

After the stone toss, Thanos' team momentarily celebrates before walking to the next mini-game. As always, Thanos is the loudest, and he appears to tell everyone to get ready to move. He counts them down, but not everyone is on the same page, and there are a couple of cast members on the opposite side of him who have trouble moving the right leg at the proper time. Lee David's Min-su even gets caught in the middle for a little bit where he's stuck in place since the actors on either side of him move their legs forward at the same time.

Everyone involved has a good laugh at that. "Squid Game" may consist of children's games, but it's clear they can be legitimately difficult for the actors to pull off some of the tasks.

During the "One More Game" montage, there are brief glimpses of Thanos dancing while his teammates perform their various games. Luckily, there's even more in the behind-the-scenes footage. When Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) tries to spin the top, Thanos is dancing right next to him, cheering his teammate on. On the first attempt, the top flops to the floor, and Se-mi berates him for his failure.

On Nam-gyu's second attempt, Thanos gets right in his face to yell, and it's only then that he actually spins it correctly. Even when Nam-gyu pushes Thanos away, he has this bizarrely hilarious look on his face. Everyone else on the team looks worried, yet he somehow looks simultaneously determined and aloof.

There are moments in "Squid Game" where Thanos effectively functions as a cartoon character. From his exaggerated facial expressions to his wildly sporadic arm movements, there are aspects of him that feel disconnected from the horrific reality of the show. In this way, he can sometimes feel like a stand-in for the audience, where we, too, understand the weight of the show, but there's a level of disconnect to where we simply enjoy it as pure entertainment.

Easily the best game of "Squid Game" Season 2 is Mingle. The players are faced with a terrifying challenge where they're placed on a rotating platform while music plays, and when the song ends, a number is announced. They then have to split into groups of said number and make their way into a room to survive until the next round. This leads to some difficult compromises — unless you're Thanos, in which case, you make people compete to wind up in your room.

As the song plays, Thanos and Nam-gyu dance along, seemingly oblivious to the horrors about to be inflicted upon them. When the pair can only bring one other person with them into a room, the choice is between Min-su and Se-mi. They rock-paper-scissors for the spot, and Min-su wins. The BTS footage shows us a couple of different variations of how Thanos encourages Min-su to come with them. On the first take, Thanos begins running off, probably expecting Min-su to follow. For the second take, Thanos and Nam-gyu grab Min-su, pulling him along with them rather forcefully.

It's unclear if the first take is a genuine blooper where Choi Seung-hyun simply forgets to pull on Min-su or if they were simply trying a different approach. Either way, not only do we see Choi Seung-hyun work on different versions of the scene, but we get the added bonus of seeing all of the extras in the background just kind of moving around and pulling on one another as the camera's fixated on Thanos' group.

One of the best types of behind-the-scenes footage to look at involves fight scenes. Ideally, it all comes across seamlessly in the finished product, where it really looks like characters got punched or beat up, and it's always interesting to see how various angles are used to make it work.

During the back half of "Squid Game" Season 2, Thanos spends a lot of time in the bathroom. At one point, he gets into a confrontation with Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), whom he's had beef with since the beginning, seeing as he's the YouTuber who promoted a crypto scam that led to the rapper losing all his money. At one point, Myung-gi takes a swing at Thanos; from this camera angle, it's obvious he didn't make contact, but Choi Seung-hyun moves over as though he did. We also see the same punch from a slightly different angle, where Myung-gi pulls back at the last second after someone off-screen says something.

It's neat to see how these kinds of stunts get pulled off, and it explains how, in the final footage, Thanos is able to whip back around stone-faced as though nothing had just happened, a scene that makes him seem like even more of a tough guy.

Throughout "Squid Game" Season 2, Thanos goes from deadly serious to joking around in a heartbeat. Fortunately, it appears that Choi Seung-hyun is a far more jovial man who's not as likely to switch his mood on a dime. Elsewhere in the bathroom footage, Choi is seen laughing while saying something, clearly enjoying what they've been doing with this particular sequence.

However, there's a special treat for "Squid Game" fans if they look carefully in the background. Right behind Choi is someone else sporting purple hair, a man who is clearly the K-pop star's stunt double. He can be found elsewhere in Netflix Korea's video as well, seemingly on hold in case Thanos is needed in a scene that could potentially put him in harm's way.

While the double's standing amongst the other players, he's not visible in any scenes that wound up in actual episodes. No doubt it would've sparked copious fan theories if two Thanoses (Thani?) were seen in the same shot.

Despite the show having a stunt double on retainer, if this behind-the-scenes footage is any indication, Choi Seung-hyun actually does many of his own "Squid Game" stunts. Early in the video, Lee Byung-hun (who plays Hwang In-ho, aka the Front Man) grabs Choi by the throat, and it's actually Choi struggling on camera. The bathroom brawl that occurs in Episode 6, "X O," is far more stunt-intensive, and, amazingly, Choi is right there in the thick of it.

Throughout the restroom battle footage, we see that Choi is in the middle of the action, which makes sense since Thanos winds up dead by the end of the fight. There are a lot of characters, pretty much all of whom partner up to fight, and Choi mostly gets into it with Im Si-wan. In one take, Choi pushes him against the wall, and there's another stunt where we see Choi flip Im against the bathroom's tile floor. (There's a loud thud accompanying it, so hopefully, Im wasn't actually hurt during that bit.) And in another part, Choi fake punches Im before Im tackles him — once again, Choi's doing his own stunts.

Stunt doubles deserve a lot of praise for the hard work they put into productions, often without any of the credit. But while it's good to see that Choi obviously had the option to opt out of any tougher scenes if he wanted to, it's neat to see him in the thick of it for a good portion of the action.

She may have been the first one killed off when the competition began in "Squid Game" Season 2, but Kang Mi-na, aka Player 196 (Song Ji-woo), certainly made an impact on viewers. Fans online referred to her as an "icon" and "diva" despite her limited screen time, where she looks cute and blows off Thanos' advances. When all the players get their photos taken right before Red Light, Green Light, a bunch of them want pictures with Thanos, seeing as he's a semi-famous rapper. Thanos is clearly infatuated with Player 196 and wants her in a photo, but she refuses. However, the two were much more amicable off the playing field.

Song uploaded plenty of photos to Instagram from her very brief time filming "Squid Game" Season 2, including one picture of her with two fingers up while standing next to Choi Seung-hyun and a couple of their co-stars. It's always fun to see the actors in such good moods, considering the horrors they're about to act out once the cameras start rolling.

Love him or hate him, Thanos definitely left his mark on "Squid Game," and as a watch through this BTS footage shows, Choi produced just as many memorable moments offscreen as he did on. There are many things we'd love to see in "Squid Game" Season 3, and even though more Thanos seems impossible, we can still hold out hope for some sort of miracle twist.