14-episode series drops first five episodes Tuesday; full run spans three weeks
"Isn't a survival show basically about coming to die? So you could say I came to die twice."
Netflix's brain survival show "Devil's Plan" has turned its latest season into a rematch arena for players who have already been eliminated once. Season 1 winner Ha Seok-jin and Season 2 winner Jeong Hyeon-gyu join Jang Dong-min — a five-time champion across survival variety programs — in a single showdown. A record 16 contestants compete for one prize, the largest cast in the franchise's history.
Director Jeong Jong-yeon said at a press conference held Thursday at Mondrian Seoul Itaewon in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, that the new season focuses squarely on brain games. "This time we put the focus purely on brain games and the mental and physical battle between players," he said.
"Devil's Plan" is a brain survival show that Jeong first launched on Netflix in 2023. Contestants live together, winning and losing "pieces" through games while moving between a residential wing and a prison wing amid shifting alliances and betrayals. Season 1 had 12 players; Season 2 had 14. The new season brings back survival veterans including Hong Jin-ho, Oh Hyeon-min, Kim Dong-jae, Seo Chul-gu, Yurisa and Hyeon Gyeong-ryeol, as well as newcomers including Shin Dong, Jaejae, Nucksal, Lee Do, Stella Jang and Jeong Won-yeong. The 14-episode series begins Tuesday with episodes one through five, rolling out over three weeks.
To assemble this lineup, Jeong set aside a principle he had long held: previously, he had made a point of casting only contestants with no prior survival show experience. "I mapped out the winners, the players who could create turning points, and the new faces, then approached them one by one," he said.
'No retirement from survival as long as I'm alive'
Jang, the franchise's all-time winningest player, enters the season as one of the strongest favorites.
"The devil has finally been invited to the devil's plan," Jang said, comparing the 16-person lineup to Star Wars. "I couldn't stop being excited — I couldn't believe they'd actually gathered this many people."
Rumors had circulated that Jang might retire from survival shows, but he dismissed them. "The moment I stop taking on challenges, I think that's when this life is over," he said. "As long as I'm alive, there is no retirement from survival."
Jang said he fully expects to be targeted by the other players. "The stress was so bad I wanted to secretly prepare a slush fund and bribe everyone," he joked, before adding with composure: "Most people probably didn't know that the more you try to keep me in check, the stronger I get."
Jeong compared Jang to Michael Jordan. "Jang is such a dominant player — bringing him in is like having Michael Jordan on the court in the NBA," the director said. Jeong added that he recruited Oh Hyeon-min specifically to give Jang a worthy stage to play on. The two were known as the "Jang-Oh alliance" on tvN's "The Genius" more than a decade ago. Jang acknowledged that Oh is no longer the 20-year-old he once knew, but said Oh "lived up to expectations." Oh offered viewers a hint: "If you keep in mind that no alliance lasts forever, you'll enjoy it even more."
Winners return — one with regrets
Ha Seok-jin's return came after persistent persuasion by the production team.
"I was genuinely amazed by how tenacious they were — they even showed up outside my home," Ha said. "They'd been asking me to try again since last chuseok, and at some point I thought, 'OK, I have to do this.'"
Ha described the cast as feeling like a gathering of the most popular contestants from every dating show on television. "It was like they'd rounded up all the kings and queens without needing any explanation," he said.
Jeong Hyeon-gyu won Season 2 but drew criticism from viewers for his aggressive conduct during the games. Reflecting on that experience, he said: "I thought all that mattered was winning, by any means necessary. I was naive and played without thinking about the viewers. I still regret causing so much trouble for so many people."
Asked why he agreed to return for this all-champions showdown, Jeong said he wanted "to come back with a more mature attitude, make up for my shortcomings and prove myself one more time." He named Jang as his most formidable rival.
Losing all your pieces no longer means elimination
The rules have changed this season. In previous seasons, a player who lost all their pieces was immediately eliminated. Director Choi Yun-hee said that is no longer the case. "This season, losing all your pieces does not mean elimination — the players' fates are decided solely through the games," she said. The production team also reworked the residential and prison wing system, which had rarely shifted once established, adding a mechanism that allows for far more movement between the two.
Rapper Seo Chul-gu, competing in his fifth survival show this year alone, said the experience gave him a new perspective. "Just as technology advances with time, I felt that games can also become this varied and this deep," he said.
The first-timers are no pushovers either. Lee Do, an instructor and Seoul National University alumnus, said he once ran into director Jeong by chance and, eager to appear on the show, volunteered his college entrance exam scores on the spot. Jaejae hinted that "the newcomers were anything but quiet." IT project manager Jeong Won-yeong called it "an honor to be part of the moment when 'Devil's Plan 3,' the masterpiece of brain survival, transforms." John Park urged viewers to keep an open mind: "All 16 of us are completely different. Please watch each player who gave their all in their own way with an open heart."
shee@heraldcorp.com
