Kpop Demon Hunters creator excited at potential for more stories

Kpop Demon Hunters creator and co-director Maggie Kang said she was “excited for the potential for more stories” involving the animated girl group Huntr/x.

Speaking to the BBC during a visit to Europe, Kang explained that although “there’s nothing official we can talk about”, he and co-director Chris Appelhans believe “there’s definitely more we can do with these characters in this world”.

“And whatever happens, it will be a story that deserves a sequel, and it will be something we want to see,” he added.

Kpop Demon Hunters has become a cultural phenomenon this year. Overtaking the Squid Game With more than 325 million views, it became the most watched game in Netflix history.

The animated film tells the story of a highly successful female K-pop trio who hold massive concerts while trying to save the world from evil forces.

They are locked in battle against a male group of demons called the Saja Boys.

The movie broke record after record. The sing-along version, released in theaters in August, became the first Netflix movie to top the US box office.

Its music also topped the US singles and album charts, becoming the first soundtrack in history to have four songs in the US top 10 simultaneously; This was something even Saturday Night Fever couldn’t achieve.

The film’s anthem, Golden, performed by Huntr/x, remained at number one for eight weeks, and the animated show topped the charts with The Archies’ song Sugar Sugar.

There’s now real belief that Kpop Demon Hunters may be ready to destroy the Oscars.

Critics liked the movie and gave it full marks 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoesonline review aggregator.

The influential Gold Derby predictions website now looks like this: favorite of the best animated movieAhead of Zootopia 2 and Elio.

“The title alone is clearly Oscar bait,” laughs American Chris Appelhans, the other half of the directing duo.

“We tried to do something new and it was really difficult and I think we’re really proud of how it turned out. But if people rewarded it that would be great.”

The other category in which the film must be a strong contender is best original song; here the rules state that any film can only enter three figures.

Netflix has already stated that the smash hit Golden will be included in the Academy consideration, but what about the other two slots?

“I think your Idol is crazy,” Kang says of the Saja Boys’ song as they feed the souls of their listeners to the evil overlord Gwi-Ma.

“We’re so proud of the song and also the sequence. We cheered, we were so proud of it.”

But Appelhans is a member of the Huntr/x team and prefers How It Sounds.

“The finale was a very technical challenge, both in terms of songwriting and storytelling,” he explains. “To make a song that is the climax of your movie, that has a lot of moving parts, but is also a real comforting song.”

Kang agrees: “This is the only song that makes me cry every time I listen to it. It’s so emotional.”

“No room for Soda Pop?” I ask about Saja Boys’ earworm.

“Maybe we could have four?” Kang laughs.

“Then we will hand it all over,” Appelhans agrees.

Appelhans can pinpoint the moment in June when he realized he had a hit on his hands.

“It’s literally 2 a.m. the night the movie was released. I’m on TikTok and in the comments section they express Rumi’s emotional journey perfectly.”

He was delighted that fans were already engaging with the film’s main protagonist on a deep level.

Kang, who was born in South Korea and moved to Canada at the age of five, places his breakthrough moment a little later. “We were able to connect with our core audience of KPop viewers and animation fans, and this demographic resonated with our film very quickly.

“But it was the third week where the trajectory of the viewership graph really changed. And we were like, ‘Wow. This is weird.’

“And we could see all the different demographics connecting to it through our social media.”

Kang believes fans were crucial to the film’s all-conquering rise: “They’re an age group that loves to create content. And it was kind of like free advertising. They were spreading the promotion of this movie everywhere. I think that helped develop these long legs.”

The success of the film continues to increase. Even four months after its release, it was still the most watched film in 19 countries, including the UK and the USA.

Kpop stars Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna, and EJAY, who provided Huntr/x’s singing voices, both appeared on Saturday Night Live (in a skit with Bad Bunny) and gave their first live Golden performance. on Jimmy Fallon’s US chat show.

“We were so sad we couldn’t be at Fallon,” Kang says in a rare moment that isn’t entirely positive.

“We were sleeping in Paris. It was so weird just seeing him talking to our daughters. It feels more real now than ever. I’m so proud of them.”

What the couple wants to make clear is that they do not believe their movie should be classified as anime.

“I don’t think we’re big enough anime fans to get that much inspiration,” Kang explains.

“The anime we like are very old-school anime like Cowboy Bebop and Sailor Moon,” he said, referring to two Japanese TV shows that originated in the ’90s.

Appelhans agrees: “I think it was a taste. I think we were influenced by a lot of Korean filmmakers and k-dramas. It was part of a broad range of tones we wanted to hit, but not the dominant one.”

They are also quick to rule out rumors of a live-action adaptation of Kpop Demon Hunters.

Kang wants to take this idea to the underworld: “It has a tone and comedic elements that lend themselves well to animation,” he says.

“It’s really hard to imagine these characters in a live-action world. It would be too realistic. So it definitely wouldn’t work for me.”

According to Appelhans, this is an ill-considered idea: “One of the great things about animation is that you create these composites that have incredibly cool qualities. Rumi can be a silly comedian and then sing and do a kick that comes back a second later and then free fall out of the sky.”

“The joy of animation is how far you can push and elevate what’s possible. I remember them adapting a lot of different anime, and most of the time it feels a little contrived.”

No matter what happens this awards season, Kang says his expectations for the film have already been exceeded.

He guesses his goal is to “connect people and bring them into Kpop.”

“It was so amazing to see people connect through this film,” he reflects.

“So all the awards would be great, but I think we’re really incredible at what the movie has done so far. So in a way, it feels like we’ve won.”