‘KPop Demon Hunters’ creator Maggie Kang on pride, identity and a possible sequel

Maggie Kang poses for a photo after an interview at Lotte Hotel in Jung District in central Seoul on Sept. 18 [KWEN HYEK-JAE]

[INTERVIEW]
 
“I feel like I am living a life of a K-pop star,” says Maggie Kang, mastermind behind the phenomenally popular animated film “KPop Demon Hunters.”
 
And indeed, she isn’t far off.
 
On Wednesday, Kang walked down the red carpet at the Busan International Film Festival and attended networking events before hopping on a train to Seoul the next day. On Thursday, she gave a speech at the JoongAng 60th Anniversary Global Media Conference and had less than an hour for an interview that she managed to squeeze in. 
 
To make it back to Busan in time for her weekend schedules, including Korea’s first sing-along screening of “KPop Demon Hunters,” she literally kicked off her high heels and ran barefoot. Along the way, she was mobbed by fans asking for autographs and a selfies, many shouting that their children were die-hard fans of the film.
 
“I am just in awe. I feel proud and feel acknowledged,” she said in a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday in central Seoul. She added that it was during the sing-along screenings in the United States that she truly realized the depth and seriousness of the global love for her film. 
 
“I was coming right from Seoul the last time and I got picked up at JFK Airport, and then they dropped me at the sing-along, and it was just all these kids dressed up and singing, and that’s the first time I really felt the kind of love from fans.”
 
Since its release on Netflix on June 20, “KPop Demon Hunters,” having taken the world by storm, soared up to become the most-viewed title of all time on the streaming giant. It surpassed 300 million views, a feat that has never been achieved before. 
 
Its original songs have also conquered global charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 list where the main track, “Golden,” has been at the top for five consecutive weeks.  
 

Maggie Kang walks down the red carpet on the opening night of Busan International Film Festival on Sept. 17 [YONHAP]

 
A moment of pride 
 
Kang has often said that the film’s central themes — shame and self-doubt — have struck a chord with international audiences.
 
Those emotions are not foreign to her either. Having grown up as a Korean in Canada, Kang said she too has wrestled with feelings of cultural alienation. But those struggles never kept her from embracing her heritage.
 
Kang moved to Canada when she was five years old with her family. 
 
“You kind of get used to the idea of not taking gimbap [seaweed rice rolls] or mandu [dumplings] because of the smell. You do feel a little embarrassed and that like you are imposing something on somebody that doesn’t really understand,” she said. 
 
“So, there was that, and I guess that is a shame. But I didn’t really take it too hard. My parents really instilled that love of Korea and told me that I am Korean and that I can’t ever lose the language. So, I think that just kept my ties with my culture really strong.”
 
That sense of pride has been now been passed down to her children.
 
“What’s kind of incredible is that my daughter, she is half Korean but she loves Korean food, and she said to me one day that she wants kimchi for lunch,” the director said. 
 
“So, I said no, no, no, you can’t take kimchi for lunch. No one’s gonna like that. And she said if somebody says it smells, I’m gonna tell them to go sit over there because that’s my lunch. So, I felt like there was this progress made in the generations already, and I felt very proud that she had that idea and that stance.”
 
Like Kang herself, second-generation Korean immigrants have increasingly taken the spotlight in the film industry — such as Lee Isaac Chung, director of the Oscar-winning “Minari” (2021), and Celine Song of “Past Lives” (2023).
 
Kang couldn’t relate with them more. 
 
“Especially ‘Past Lives,’ I thought that was a story about me and so I watched it on the plane and texted my husband and said you need to watch this and then you will understand how I feel about being Korean and leaving Korea and what my life could have been,” she said. 
 

Still from “KPop Demon Hunters” [NETFLIX]

As a creator 
 
What could’ve remained as something to be shy of, Kang turned into her biggest weapon. 
 
“Honestly, I think that I was the only person who could make ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ because I’m somebody who’s in both cultures equally. I’m the only kind of Korean who with the feature animation experience of this level of storytelling and then I’m also dual culture, so I think I was able to infuse both of the cultures kind of evenly, I would say, into the movie,” she said. 
 
That dual perspective, she says, is what gave the film its global appeal.
 
“Even though I knew I wanted it to be Korean, I didn’t want it to scream Korea,” she said. 
 
“I didn’t want it to be like almost a textbook and teaching. I just wanted to just be there and it’s just accepted and I think that’s the best way to kind of teach the audience about our culture, just through telling good stories and then they just happened to be Korean.”  
 
The increasing number of Koreans working abroad or Koreans raised overseas participating in such projects is helping shape how Korean culture is represented.
 
“Just working with The Black Label [a K-pop agency that participated in producing original soundtrack of the film], there is a lot of gyopos [ethnic Koreans who were raised overseas]. I think we are gonna be the ones that kind of introduce that quicker and get that ball moving faster because we are able to hold both cultures,” she said.
 
According to Kang, approximately 20 percent of her team for “KPop Demon Hunters” — around 50 people — were Korean, and their contributions were significant.
 
“There were a lot of suggestions that the Korean team brought up and a lot of them are in the movie now,” she said. 
 
“I remember one day, I think she was an animator, and she came up to me and said I’m Korean Korean and I just came from Korea two months ago, and she said I watched the movie and I felt very Korean. And when she told me that I felt like — oh okay, we’re on the right path.”
 
As much as the popularity of “KPop Demon Hunters” has instilled some kind of pride in Koreans, there has been constant questions regarding its origin — whether it qualifies as K-content, especially since it was produced by a Western studio.
 
“I think it is definitely K-content because I’m Korean and the idea originated from me, and also we had many Korean artists who contributed and put their hearts into it,” she said. 
 
“So, I think the soul of the movie is Korean, which I think ultimately makes it Korean. Also, if we are thinking about globalization of Korean culture then we have to work with partners globally.”
 
 

Maggie Kang, director of “KPop Demon Hunters” reveals early sketches of the animated film at the JoongAng 60th Anniversary Global Media Conference held at Lotte Hotel in central Seoul on Sept. 18. [KANG JUNG-HYUN]

Planning for the future
 
Kang jokingly said it could take “maybe six years” to complete a sequel — one year less than the seven it took to produce “KPop Demon Hunters.” 
 
“I think I’ll be visiting Korea more often,” she said, maintaining mostly tight-lipped about her next project, including the sequel. 
 
“I’m not sure what kind of project I will be doing next, but I don’t think I need to do another project that is so immersed in Korean culture like this,” she said. 
 
“This kind of shows us the history and everything, but I do think I want to feature whether it’s a Korean character or just something Korean in there because I don’t think I can write a character that’s not Korean really because I don’t know how to do that.” 
 
When asked which of the reactions or the covers of “KPop Demon Hunters” was her favorite, Kang picked out BTS member Jungkook’s. 
 
“Jungkook first teared up, and then recently he did a cover of ‘Golden’ where he got frustrated because he couldn’t reach the high notes. That was really funny,” she said. 
 
 

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]