AI slop artists are redoing the 'Squid Game' series finale

Talk about missing the point.
 By 
Chance Townsend
 on 
 Young-hee the doll is seen during the "Squid Game" Season 3 parade and finale event
Credit: Young-hee the doll is seen during the "Squid Game" Season 3 parade and finale event

Was the series finale of the hit South Korean Netflix show Squid Game a good one?

Depending on who you ask, not really. Judging by the endless online chatter, many viewers found the ending unsatisfying — not necessarily because it didn’t tie up loose ends (although it arguably did not), but because it left the characters in an especially grim place.

For others — particularly those with some extra time on their hands — it became the perfect excuse to fire up Google’s Veo 3 and craft an entirely new ending.

Spoilers ahead, but the ending of Squid Game Season 3 is bleak. Both this season and the one before it explored the clash of ideals between Gi-hun, the show’s protagonist, and the Frontman (Lee Byung-hun), with Season 3 ultimately siding with the latter’s nihilistic view of humanity. In the finale, Gi-hun faces an impossible choice: save himself, or sacrifice everything to protect Player 222’s newborn child during the last game. He chooses the latter, giving up his life so the baby — an unsettlingly CGI-rendered creation — can live.

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Viewers didn’t love it.

Of course, fanfiction and alternate endings are nothing new. But using AI to visualize those endings is still relatively novel — and, frankly, strange to watch. On TikTok and Instagram, creators using Google Veo 3 have been generating new versions of the finale. Some feature Gi-hun kicking the CGI baby off a platform; others depict Player 222 surviving the Jump Rope game and going on to raise her child. There's also the one where Gi-hun has a knife fight with the baby. It's definitely disturbing stuff.

There’s plenty to say about Squid Game’s ending itself — like how extending the series beyond its first season arguably undermines the show's original critique of capitalism. But there’s something else at play here: the growing urge to use AI to "fix" stories that were intentionally written to leave viewers unsettled.

Are these AI-generated videos meant to be taken seriously? Not really. But they’re also a glimpse of where things are heading—toward a future where anyone can easily remake or reshape a story to fit their own preferred version of events.

Whether that’s exciting or unsettling depends on how you feel about the game itself.

Headshot of a Black man
Chance Townsend
Assistant Editor, General Assignments

Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.

In his free time, he cooks, loves to sleep, and greatly enjoys Detroit sports. If you have any tips or want to talk shop about the Lions, you can reach out to him on Bluesky @offbrandchance.bsky.social or by email at [email protected].


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