"A message from the Joker at 6:00 a.m. on July 8" — Fans decipher cryptic Netflix Japan post hinting at Alice in Borderland season 3

On July 5, 2025, Netflix Japan dropped a cryptic note on its X profile, initiating conjecture about a probable Alice in Borderland season 3 update. The post appeared to be a jumble of random letters.

However, a viewer cracked the code using a Caesar shift. When decoded, it spelled out:

“A message from the Joker at 6:00 a.m. on July 8.”

The mention of the Joker directly links back to the season 2 finale of Alice in Borderland, which concluded with a shot of the Joker playing card. However, it didn’t clarify its role. Fans responded with intrigue to the cryptic post.

"What on shiz Sherlock Holmes is this. That was quite amazing tho. Lol some people have so much time on their hands," a fan remarked.

"Aib’s promo era has officially begun," a user mentioned.

"I actually immediately thought that it has to be abt AiB when I saw the post. Of course everything had to be AiB style lol," a person shared.

Many are praising Netflix's mind-game approach to promotion.

"P.S. Even though the promotions for AiB are scarce, I actually love how they handle it, it’s so AiB-like. It’s all about mind games, and they always leave it up to the fans to figure things out themselves," a netizen said.

"Not them inserting mind game even for announcement," a viewer noted.

"Genius level marketing," another fan added.

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Is Alice in Borderland season 2’s finale just the beginning of what’s next?

Netflix’s Alice in Borderland season 2 concluded with a disclosure that none of the games took place in reality. The characters, including Arisu and Usagi, were revealed to be unconscious after a meteorite struck Tokyo, causing cardiac arrests across the city.

Throughout the season, players engaged in increasingly dangerous survival games led by Face Cards. The storyline established that completing these games would reveal the truth behind Borderland. By the finale, it was confirmed that the games were not real, but rather a metaphysical representation of the characters’ struggle to survive while in a coma.

The players were hospital patients suspended in a shared near-death experience. Those who chose to return to reality woke up in their hospital beds, while others who chose to remain became citizens of Borderland.

The final scene introduced the Joker card, which did not appear in the main storyline. In the manga, the Joker serves as a symbolic ferryman, helping guide survivors from the Borderland back to reality.

However, Netflix’s version showed only a visual of the Joker card without any explanation. This departure from the original manga created an open-ended conclusion, leaving room for future possibilities.

Arisu and Usagi, along with others who survived, retained no memory of Borderland. Despite this, both characters displayed an unspoken familiarity upon meeting in the real world. This echoed the manga ending, where the two also reunited post-recovery.

In the sequel manga, Alice in Borderland: Retry, Arisu and Usagi are a married couple preparing to welcome their first child. Arisu becomes a psychologist, and Usagi continues her father’s mountaineering work. The sequel begins when Arisu suffers another accident and returns to Borderland while Usagi is pregnant.

With the original manga’s main plot used, the upcoming season might borrow from Retry, where Arisu re-enters the strange world after an accident. Netflix could also build a new storyline featuring the Joker as the lead focus. Nothing official has been disclosed yet about where the narrative is headed.

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Alice in Borderland is set to release this September 25th.