‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ creator says the movie originally had nothing to do with K-pop

K-pop was not originally a huge element in Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters, creator Maggie Kang has revealed.

Speaking at the Netflix Creative Asia conference at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea on Saturday (September 20), she explained that she wanted to work on a Korean animation project and see the country of her birth represented on screen.

“I really never came across one in the 12 or 13 years of working in the animation industry in Hollywood,” she said (via Variety), adding that the film came about thanks to her interest in Korean mythology and the creatures she heard about while growing up.

“The idea of demons naturally led to demon hunters, a group of really incredible women who fight demons,” she continued. “But the idea needed something else. It just wasn’t enough.”

This is where K-pop came in. “The movie instantly became larger in scale,” Kang said, highlighting K-pop’s cross-cultural appeal. “It became a musical, and there was just more spectacle.”

Kpop Demon Hunters, which has become Netflix’s most-watched movie of all time, focuses on a girl band, Huntr/x. They lead double lives as demon hunters and face off against a rival boy band (and secret demons), the Saja Boys. Kang said that creating Korean female lead characters meant a lot to her, and revealed that Mira, the main dancer of Huntr/x, was her own favourite.

The movie features original songs from prominent K-pop producers, with Kang saying, “We went to bona fide K-pop hit makers, from producers to songwriters to lyricists to make sure that the DNA of the K-pop music was the primary concern.”

‘Golden’, the second single from the movie’s soundtrack album, has reached Number One in the US and UK, while it was covered by Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge last week.

And members of K-pop group Twice covered another track, ‘Takedown’, for the soundtrack album. “Their excitement about the film really validated what we were trying to achieve and accomplish in the K-pop space,” said Kang.

Elsewhere, the director also discussed the influence of Korean shamanism. “We have this amazing tradition, which is the mudang,” she said. “So the idea of using music and song to ward off demons. This is what the mudang did.”

Kang described the rituals of gut, performed by Korean shamans, as “really the first concerts in Korea,” and they inspired the way the movie’s hunters would draw their powers from song and dance, creating “sonic weapons to fight back demon hordes.”

In 2022, Kang and her team visited Korea for research, taking in locations including Gwangjang Market, Myeongdong shopping district, Namsan Tower, Seonsan Folk Village and the Seoul Olympic Stadium. “You have to know Korea in order to show it just the way it is,” Kang explained.

She went on to say that the team “didn’t expect” the movie to be as popular as it is, and said there’s “no official word” on future instalments. However, it was reported last month by Deadline that Netflix was in early talks about a sequel. Per The Wrap, a live-action remake could be in the works, too.

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