“KPop Demon Hunters” is a rare zeitgeist-capturing phenomenon. The animated musical, about a Kpop group that also battles the forces of darkness, just became the #1 Netflix original movie of all time. And a sing-along version of the movie, released in theaters for just two days, was enough to have it sit atop the domestic box office for the weekend.
Of course, with this success, there are many opportunities. And Netflix is looking at all of them.
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But one that seems to be a sure bet is a sequel, or pair of sequels, to complete a “Kpop Demon Hunters” trilogy. As TheWrap previously reported, Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation, which produced the original movie, have begun discussing the further adventures of Huntr/x and plans include two sequels. Everyone is committed to the franchise. And directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans have started thinking about where the franchise will go next.
“There’s immense pressure,” Kang admitted about the follow-up in an interview with TheWrap. “Everybody tells us, ‘Oh no, it’s easier. You know how to do it.’ But you can’t do the same thing again. You have to make it bigger and better. And there’s way more pressure because of that.”
Kang said that she and Appelhans strove to make the first movie “everything that it could be.” “With the sequel, the pressure that we put on ourselves is going to be bigger,” Kang explained. She said that the “Harry Potter” movies did a great job of growing with the kids as they aged. “With this too, it feels like the movie will grow with the fans, who are going to get older, and we’ll have to cater to that a little bit more,” Kang said of the film’s popularity with kids and pre-teens. “And that prevents it from becoming the same thing.” But before all of that, Kang joked, “We’re just trying to get through our schedule. We’re trying to survive.”
“It was such a personal film to make the first time,” Appelhans said. “Maggie said very articulately, making sure that the second one is personally satisfying, that meets our standards is really important, because that’s of all the things you can control as an artist, believing in the story you’re telling and the work you’re making is the one you truly have total control over. That’s hard to do, but that’s the one thing you can count on.”
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