{"id":319067,"date":"2026-03-03T05:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319067\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:39:08","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-directors-on-oscars-films-sequel-and-their-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319067\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 Directors on Oscars, Film\u2019s Sequel and Their Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKPop Demon Hunters<\/a> directors Maggie Kang<\/a> and Chris Appelhans<\/a> are reflecting on their long journey to the Oscars.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which was released in June on Netflix<\/a>, has become the streamer\u2019s most-watched title. The sleeper hit spawned toy lines and food tie-ins, along with a theatrical run for its sing-along companion. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond anything I could have ever imagined this concept becoming,\u201d Kang tells The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film has catapulted the team into the spotlight, led by the film\u2019s lead singing voice and songwriter for multiple songs, EJAE. But Kang and Appelhans are quick to emphasize that the film is only possible because of the large team behind it. \u201cAnimation is such a collaborative process,\u201d Kang says. <\/p>\n

\n\tKPop Demon Hunters is up for best animated feature and best original song at the 2026 Academy Awards. It\u2019s undoubtedly a big moment for Kang and Appelhans, but the directors are keen to share this moment with their team that brought the film to life over its seven-year incubation period. \u201cWe honestly haven\u2019t had much time to be with them post-release and just hold hands, jump up and down and celebrate,\u201d Appelhans says, adding they\u2019ve finally been able to have those moments during the awards campaign.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery time I think about the crew, I just burst into tears,\u201d Kang admits. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful to everybody. You make sacrifices in your life working on these things, no matter what your role is and how long you\u2019re on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscars are shaping up to be the biggest moment for the directors to celebrate with their crew. \u201cWe got extra tickets, so we\u2019re only inviting our crew to it; just as a reward and also so that we could all be there to celebrate, no matter what happens,\u201d Kang explains. \u201cThey all deserve to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 success, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if Kang and Appelhans found themselves unable to be surprised at anything surrounding the movie at this point. The pair deny that, however. Appelhans noted in recent Q&As, like their American Cinematheque program moderated by director Guillermo del Toro, there are still moments of shock. \u201cI am always wonderfully surprised when filmmakers that we really admire [appreciate the film],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe sort of clarity that they see \u2014 through all the bedazzling in the movie \u2014 to the hard stuff. [They] have such interesting questions about it and notice the things that took the most work behind the scenes to pull off,\u201d Appelhans continues. \u201cArtist to artist, you feel sort of appreciated.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFor Kang, meeting with artists who know how much the movie means remains rewarding. \u201cWe recently met Daniel Dae Kim in person,\u201d she says, adding that he\u2019s \u201cso lovely\u201d and how she can\u2019t believe they hadn\u2019t met.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe adds, \u201c[He] just knows how much this means for our industry and for Korean creators because he\u2019s somebody who really stands up for that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKPop Demon Hunters\u2019 success has been immense, due in part to the gradual growth it initially experienced on the streaming platform. There\u2019s been plenty of conversation around whether or not a theatrical release would\u2019ve changed that. \u201cAs an industry, as filmmakers, you want the theaters to still be there,\u201d she begins, noting the film was greenlit during the COVID days. \u201cTo get a green light in a time of super uncertainty. To be able to make an original IP in this climate, where we are just typically getting sequels and regurgitated \u201980s films, I just saw it as an opportunity to get a movie made. That\u2019s all you really can ask for, especially as a first-time filmmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKang says that given the budget they got to make the film, it was a great opportunity. \u201cThe whole theater climate is strange. We just don\u2019t know how people are consuming content these days. We\u2019re still trying to figure it out,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur film rolled out on a streaming platform, got this love from the fans and then ended up three weeks later in a movie theater. The fact that that\u2019s possible for something is really interesting,\u201d Kang continues. \u201cIt just tells us that every film is different. How it\u2019s consumed is different. How it\u2019s enjoyed is different. Hopefully we see more, I guess, bespoke releases [or] approaches to each film.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKPop Demon Hunters, as a title, is at once a straightforward example of what the film is, but doesn\u2019t allow for audiences to know it\u2019s so much more than that. \u201cStreaming is great in our case,\u201d says Appelhans. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to explain that to an audience in a marketing piece. The most convincing version of that is word of mouth, firsthand experience and people speaking up for the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continues, \u201cThat snowball effect is entirely so much more easy to do in streaming, I think. I wonder if there\u2019s [a] certain type of movie that will always benefit from having that opportunity to create buy-in and build momentum versus trying to persuade everybody cold that they should show up to the theater on the first Saturday or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a sequel eventually on the way \u2014\u00a0reports of the film\u2019s release date were initially stated for 2029; however, the Sony Pictures Animation bosses recently alluded to it likely being longer. Animation, famously, is a long process. The directors are understandably coy about what they can share; the pair have essentially been promoting the film nonstop since it blew up in July 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of comments on YouTube interviews that have been voted right to the top that say something along the lines of, \u2018If there\u2019s going to be a sequel, let them cook. Don\u2019t rush it. We can all wait,\u2019\u201d Appelhans says. \u201cThe audiences are so media savvy now. They don\u2019t know the animation pipeline per se, but they have sort of spoken in the sense of if we make it great, they\u2019ll be there.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKang relates it to another SPA title that experienced a years-long wait time in between films. \u201cThe diehard Spider-Verse fans really know that. They understand that level of artistry takes a really long time,\u201d she says. \u201cAnytime you\u2019re trying to do something new and different, it takes even longer. I think whatever we do next is going to be just pushing ourselves even more than what we did with this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KPop Demon Hunters directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans are reflecting on their long journey to the Oscars.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[98563,146,85,46,4850,1729,24079,397,400],"class_list":{"0":"post-319067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-chris-appelhans","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-k-pop-news","13":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","14":"tag-maggie-kang","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-netflix"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}