Netflix's most-watched Japanese show, Alice in Borderland, is an absolute must-watch series for anyone searching 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 must 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 where the Netflix hit could go in its confirmed 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.
Usagi and Arisu tend to a fallen friend in Alice in Borderland season 2.
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 get a third season. The streamer made the announcement 10 months after season 2's debut, revealing 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.)
Arisu is the titular Alice who is dropped into a strange world.
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 Ann, Kuina, 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.
From left: Ann, Kuina, Usagi, and Arisu prepare to fight the King of Spades in Alice in Borderland season 2.
Mira presented several dystopian explanations for Borderland that later proved to be lies. 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 and, 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.
A teaser image for Alice in Borderland season 3.
When will 'Alice in Borderland' season 3 come out?
After over two years of waiting, Alice in Borderland season 3 will finally premiere on September 25, 2025. Netflix announced the release date on July 8, along with the new cast and the first teaser trailer for the season.
Netflix's description for season 3 reads, "In the previous season, Arisu and Usagi cleared every card's game and returned to the real world. Now married, they lead a happy life, though their memories of the Borderland surface only in dreams and hallucinations. One day, Usagi suddenly vanishes. Guided by Ryuji, a man who studies the afterlife, she sets out for the Borderland. A devastated Arisu is visited by Banda, now a Borderland resident, who informs him of Usagi’s whereabouts. Arisu must now follow her back into inevitable danger to find her."
Who will be in the cast of 'Alice in Borderland' season 3?
Unfortunately for show fans, most of Alice in Borderland's beloved original cast will not return for season 3. In addition to Kento Yamazaki as Arisu and Tao Tsuchiya as Usagi, only two familiar faces will be seen in the new season. As seen in the teaser, Ayaka Miyoshi will reprise her role as Ann, while Hayato Isomura and Katsuya Maiguma will return as Banda and Yaba, the Jack of Hearts players who elected to stay in Borderland during the season 2 finale.
The new cast of Alice in Borderland season 3 includes Koji Ohkura, Risa Sudou, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Tina Tamashiro, Kotaro Daigo, Hyunri, and Sakura Kiryu, all in yet-to-be-disclosed roles. Meanwhile, House of Ninjas star Kento Kaku joins the series as Ryuji, the researcher who takes Usagi back to the Borderland.
The confirmed cast of Alice in Borderland season 3.
What will season 3 of 'Alice in Borderland' be about?
Now that season 3 is getting closer, Netflix has revealed whether the new, completely original story, will be inspired by Haro Asō's two Borderland spinoffs. (Unfortunately, neither has gotten an official English release yet.) The jury's still out on whether Alice on Border Road will be referenced, but the new teaser shows a sweet detail that's part of Asō's official lore: Arisu and Usagi are married! The pair also tie the knot in Alice in Borderland Retry, a direct sequel that sees Arisu return to the deadly world quite a while after the events of AiB.
Even if the Netflix series's third season is a completely new story separate from Asō's spinoffs, a manga character who wasn't included in the first two seasons could likely make its 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. We'll have to wait and see whether the live-action Joker is similar or serves a different purpose.
