Netflix's most-watched Japanese show, Alice in Borderland, is an absolute must-watch series for anyone looking for a show like Squid Game. Based on Haro Asō's manga of the same name, the thrilling death-game series follows a group of everyday people who are transported to an alternate-reality Tokyo, where they have to win life-threatening games to survive and get the chance to return to the real world. Where Squid Game had a group of evil, extremely wealthy men using poor people as toys, Alice in Borderland is more supernatural, as Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya), and the rest of the talented cast wonder what the mysterious Borderland really is and how they got there.
In December 2022, Alice in Borderland returned for its second season and offered some big (and manga-accurate) reveals surrounding Arisu's time in Borderland, including how the players were chosen and whether they could ever escape. It also ended with a very cryptic teaser, leaving the question of whether the Netflix hit could return for a third season. Below, read everything we know about Alice in Borderland season 3, including a breakdown of what to remember from season 2's finale.
Has 'Alice in Borderland' been renewed for season 3?
Prepare to return to the Borderland. On September 27, 2023, Netflix announced that Alice in Borderland would return for a third season. The streamer made the announcement 10 months after season 2 debuted on the streamer. The renewal came with the news that Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya would return as Arisu and Usagi, with director Shinsuke Sato continuing to helm the series.
The lead-up to the official announcement was preceded by a clue that fans were not delusional in hoping for a third installment. (Nine months of radio silence could make anyone wonder!) A day before the news broke, Netflix's official Twitter/X account posted an image of 10 playing cards on a black background. In addition to playing cards being one of the major symbols of the series, countless fans also decoded a possible hidden message. If you write out the suits of each card and choose the letter in each suit that matches the number on its card, they spell out a clear declaration: ALICE THREE. (While the Netflix U.S. account only shared the image a day ago, posters of the cards were spotted in a Japan subway earlier this month, per What's On Netflix.)
pic.twitter.com/1TV66ZjIsVSeptember 26, 2023
When will 'Alice in Borderland' season 2 come out?
On November 18, 2024, Netflix held an International Showcase revealing its upcoming slate of non-English-language shows. The streamer revealed that Alice in Borderland would arrive in 2025 with an original story outside the source manga. The event also teased a "very big actor" joining the cast, so there's something to look out for, along with the exact date.
How did 'Alice in Borderland' season 2 end?
In the season 2 finale, we finally saw the big showdown between players Arisu and Usagi and the Queen of Hearts, a.k.a. Mira Kano, who was revealed as one of the Gamemasters at the end of season 1. After defeating the King of Spades with the help of Kuina, An, Aguni, and Heiya—all of whom were left brutally wounded but still living—Arisu and Usagi went to the Queen of Hearts arena to find... a croquet match. Mira challenged Arisu to complete three rounds of croquet, a simple challenge that turned Arisu's search for answers about Borderland into a battle of mental manipulation.
Throughout the season, Arisu had tried to get answers about the mysterious, deadly Borderland from each of its "citizens," who had since become the face card challengers. He and his allies were risking their lives over the possibility of returning to the real world after winning the cards, but they never got confirmation that they wouldn't be stuck in Borderland forever. Mira used his desperation against him, presenting several dystopian explanations that proved to be lies. (The one where future immortal humans played Borderland as a VR game was pretty compelling.) The final scenario connects with Arisu: Mira says he's been in a mental health facility the whole time, Mira is his doctor, and Borderland is just an imaginative reality he came up with because he refused to accept his friends Chota and Karube's deaths.
This "reality" cuts deep into Arisu's lingering guilt over his friends' deaths; at first, he believes it enough that he almost accepts Mira's game-ending pills. Instead, Usagi snaps him out of it by cutting herself, asking her to save him, and reminding him that they're alive and can keep living together. He emerges from the despair and finishes the croquet rounds, with Mira getting lasered at the end. When the victors are asked whether they want to stay in Borderland as citizens, Arisu, Usagi, Aguni, Heiya, Kuina, Chishiya, and even Niragi all say no. And then we see the truth of Borderland.
Back to the opening at Shibuya Crossing: Arisu is playing in the street with Chota and Karube, while the other remaining players are also in the area. As for the fireworks that everyone remembers seeing before entering Borderland? It was a meteorite exploding over Tokyo, which decimated the area. The events in Borderland only took place in a minute in the real world, and everyone there was actually people whose hearts temporarily stopped in the explosion. While Chota, Karube, and the rest of the Borderland victims died in the real world, everyone who survived and chose to leave was resuscitated. They all end up in the same hospital, where these people who don't really know each other are drawn together by innate connections. Arisu meets and asks out Usagi, and all of the players go on living their lives.
With this ending, season 2 provided a hopeful conclusion for a show that was essentially a thought experiment about the will to survive, with all of our favorite players learning that the point of life is living. However, the show finale ended with a very ominous image: A gust of wind blows across a table full of playing cards and all of them float away except for The Joker. We now know that this parting shot hinted that series director Shinsuke Sato would return to the world of Borderland another way.
What will season 3 of 'Alice in Borderland' be about?
With Netflix teasing that season 3 will be a completely original story, after seasons 1 and 2 followed the source manga, the upcoming season's plot is anyone's guess. Haro Asō did write two Borderland spinoffs that could inspire season 3. (Unfortunately, neither has gotten an official English release yet.)
The first, Alice on Border Road, centers on a Tokyo schoolgirl named Kina Sano who is bored with her ordinary life. One day, she wakes up in a desolate Kyoto with no memory and the Queen of Clubs card in her hand. She meets with several other amnesiac wanderers, including fellow student Alice Kojima, who holds the Queen of Hearts. Eventually, the duo becomes part of a group of 12 face card holders who are given a hint to travel to Tokyo. But things change when one of the people who refuses to go is killed.
While Border Road has completely different characters and no connection to AiB besides the premise, Alice in Borderland Retry is a direct sequel that sees Arisu return to the deadly world. When he finds himself back in Borderland, the poor guy has to win one game, the Nine of Hearts, to get back to the real world instantly. The quick series takes place quite a while after the events of AiB when Arisu is working as a school counselor and is married... to Usagi!
Even if the Netflix series' third season is a completely new story separate from Asō's spinoffs, a manga character who wasn't included in the first two seasons will likely make their way into season 3. The Joker teaser in the season 2 finale also served as an Easter egg for manga fans, where a character called the Joker acts as a ferryman ushering people between Borderland and our world. Is this how Arisu and Usagi will return to the deadly world? We'll have to wait and see.
