{"id":33157,"date":"2025-07-30T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33157\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T19:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:15:09","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-directors-on-how-they-did-it-and-made-netflix-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33157\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 Directors on How They Did It \u2014 And Made Netflix History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>COMING KPOP POP? \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stories that we can tell. There\u2019s a lot of backstories that we haven\u2019t fleshed out,\u201d says KPop Demon Hunters helmer Maggie Kang, right, with co-director Chris Appelhans. (The Ankler illustration; Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images, Netflix) <\/p>\n

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I cover TV from L.A. I scooped key details about Stephen Colbert\u2019s <\/a>Late Show<\/a> cancelation<\/a>, including who knew what when, and reported on what\u2019s expected from Cindy Holland<\/a> in her upcoming role at \u201cNew Paramount.\u201d Email me at lesley.goldberg@theankler.com<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I bring you the backstory of one of Netflix\u2019s biggest and most unexpected hits, a programming note: Please join me today at 5 p.m. PT for a live AMA for The Ladder, Ankler Media\u2019s community for professionals in the first decade of their entertainment industry careers. To submit your questions and get the Zoom link, first apply here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Now on to today\u2019s main attraction, aka Netflix\u2019s biggest feature ever. <\/p>\n

For Maggie Kang, the idea of mashing up an animated movie about a group of female demon hunters who also happen to be K-pop stars is, admittedly, a weird one. But in the past five weeks, that mashup has proven to be hotter than a ticket to a Blackpink concert as Kang\u2019s KPop Demon Hunters dominates on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Now in its sixth week on Netflix, the Sony Pictures Animated feature became the first film in the streamer\u2019s history to record more than 20 million views in each of its first six weeks and to actually snowball into its biggest weekly viewership metric in week six. (KPop Demon Hunters had a one-week, three-theater run in L.A., New York and San Francisco, qualifying it for Oscar consideration, with my colleague Katey Rich<\/a> giving the film\u2019s central anthem, \u201cGolden,\u201d its best chances for a nod.) <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The movie was a passion project for Kang, who was born in Seoul and moved to Toronto at age 5. As she tells me, the film arose from her desire to explore Korean mythology and bring unexpected female characters to the screen. What she came up with is an epic tale revolving around a three-member K-pop girl group as they battle a rival boy band, Saja Boys, who, naturally, turn out to be demons.<\/p>\n

Globally, an estimated 132.4 million viewers have spent time with Huntr\/x members Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho); Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo). The film\u2019s K-pop soundtrack, featuring irresistible songs performed by popular artists Ejae (Rumi), Audrey Nuna (Mira) and Rei Ami (Zoey), has collected more than 1.3 billion streams and counting \u2014 with all eight tracks breaking into Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 charts and \u201cGolden\u201d at No. 1.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the global hit everyone in Hollywood is talking about \u2014 but the project was far from a sure thing. KPop Demon Hunters, which marks Kang\u2019s directing debut (she previously worked in story and artist roles on titles from Puss in Boots to The Croods: A New Age), was initially passed over at Sony, where she works as a director and was previously a story artist. But then Netflix \u2014 home to Korean breakout Squid Game \u2014 boarded the genre-busting musical adventure. The streamer \u201cgave notes, but the core team was Sony,\u201d says co-director Chris Appelhans (Wish Dragon, Rise of the Guardians), the animation veteran who also works at Sony and was partnered with Kang to help infuse her \u201cvery culturally Korean movie\u201d with the music that would elevate the story into a global phenomenon.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Kang and Appelhans about their film\u2019s creative development, the hurdles to get there and the executives who helped, and the plot points, details and craft that went into making a hit, plus what\u2019s coming next. <\/p>\n

In our interview, the filmmakers break down:<\/p>\n

Step-by-step: How a wildly original pitch turned into Netflix\u2019s most-watched film ever<\/p>\n

Why Sony first passed \u2014 and how Netflix seized the opportunity and brought it back to life <\/p>\n

Who paid for the budget and who owns the rights now <\/p>\n

The Korean mythology behind the story and how a \u201cwhite guy\u201d ended up co-directing<\/p>\n

The creative strategy behind building characters into virtual pop stars, and how it subverts the superhero genre<\/p>\n

The music strategy that made every song hit \u2014 and if a live tour is next<\/p>\n

Their strong hints about a future sequel and spin-offs <\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMING KPOP POP? \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stories that we can tell. There\u2019s a lot of backstories that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-33157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}