BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- The monumental success of the Netflix Series “Squid Game” created a challenge for the team behind the Korean series when faced with putting together a second season. Along with being a massive fan favorite, among its numerous awards, “Squid Game” earned 14 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, winning six. Season one had reached a natural climax after Seong Gi-hum (Lee Jung-jae) – better known as player 456 - had outlasted hundreds of contestants in a game where players were killed after failing a variety of challenges until only one was left to take home the massive grand prize. After surviving, Seong had planned to take his winnings and go to the United States but decided to return to the game with a new resolution in his mind. How that plays out can be seen when the second season – “Squid Game 2” - will launch on the streaming service starting Dec. 26. Speaking through a translator, Lee explains the biggest difference for him between the first and second seasons is how much his character has grown and matured. “Emotionally Gi-hun has changed quite a bit and he’s gone through a transitional period in terms of the emotional arc.  And because of that emotional change, in season one, the types of emotions that Gi-hun feels when he meets the other players is very different from what he feels when he meets other participants in season two,” Lee says also through a translator. “In season one, I think that I as an actor, and both Gi-hun, was more about expressing his feelings. However, in season two, I realized that I was on set receiving and accepting others emotions first and paying more attention to that, so I thought that was the biggest difference this time around.” Director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who made history at the “74th Primetime Emmys” becoming the first Asian to win Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, returns to the roles as director, writer, and producer. The first season reflected was going on during the pandemic. Hwang had hoped the second season would be produced during a better time in human history but what he has seen is the world has become an even darker place. He points to the widening gaps when it comes to wealth, issues with refugees around the globe, climate change and wars as the factors that are having a negative impact on the world. The biggest influence on him in creating the second season was the increase he saw with the younger generation to make money quickly either through the lottery or crypto currency. “The one thing that I had most in mind and top of mind was this current world and how it makes all of us divide one another, separate us from the other group, create different sides, and become hostile to who you identify as being on the other side,” Hwang says. “And there are so many things that divide us today. “Whether it's race, religion, language, the haves and the have-nots, the generational divisions. And recently with the very important vote, we look at the political division, the left against the right, the conservatives against the progressive.  And things like this lead to such a division where it almost seems like there's this line that absolutely cannot be crossed.” One new twist he added this season is that players will face a life-or-death vote after each game. Hwang added that element to add more tension. Changes were necessary to try to match or surpass the success of the first season. Lee traveled the world after the initial season and saw how much the series was embraced. “The one thing that truly stuck with me was how important the theme or subject matter of what we put out there is.  I could truly feel that it was because of the subject matter being so resonant with so many global audiences, that ‘Squid Game’ saw the success that it did,” Lee says. “And as an actor, I tried to focus on how do I bring to life and stay loyal to that theme and the subject matter as a performer. “But at the same time, I felt that if you focus too much on just the subject matter, the series or the show can be a little bit too heavy.  And so, I focused on trying to really strike that adequate balance between bringing both aspects to the show.” He had to deal with these questions while working with an almost entirely new cast. Along with Lee, only Lee Byung-hun, Wi Ha-jun and Gong Yoo reprise their roles from the initial season. 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. For more information on “Squid Game 2,” go to  www.netflix.com/SquidGame.