Warning: SPOILERS for Kpop Demon HuntersKPop Demon Hunters is one of the most surprising success stories of 2025. The animated musical fantasy film is the rare family friendly endeavors that has genuinely crossed generational barriers to appeal to viewers of all ages. Fun, emotional, and full of catchy original songs, KPop Demon Hunters has charmed its way into hearts around the world.

KPop Demon Hunters may be a breezy watch, but that ease is the result of countless hours invested by a large creative team. That team includes first-time director Maggie Kang (also a co-writer) and co-director Chris Appelhans, and the unsung singers behind the fictional band HUNTR/X.

While KPop Demon Hunters’ Rumi, Zoey, and Mira are voiced by Arden Cho, Ji-young Yoo, and May Hong, the characters’ songs are performed by EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna, respectively. EJAE even lent her writing skills to the project, co-writing songs including “How It’s Done” and “Golden”, the latter of which has sat atop the Billboard H๏τ 100.

ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan interviewed Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna about their work on the smash hit film. They reveal the surprising challenges behind Netflix’s most successful film ever, and shared what they most want to see in a sequel.

These Were KPop Demon Hunters’ Biggest Challenges

KPop Demon Hunters is an incredibly ambitious film, blending one of the world’s most popular musical genres with a fantasy action story for all ages. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans shared how challenging the process was and what the tallest hurdles were for them during development.

ScreenRant: I want to start with the journey of going into this movie. Did it always feel big, or was there a moment you guys were like, “Wow, this is beyond anything we could ever imagine?”

Maggie Kang: All of it. I mean, it felt really big when we were working through it. A lot of different things needed to come together in order to be able to pull it off. And we kept saying that, like, “Can we pull this off?”

It was a lot, [with] the songs and the animation and the choreography and then the story, and then the comedy. So many things had to come together for every scene to work, and so it was a huge undertaking.

We started to solve things piece by piece, and we learned how to tackle everything, [and] even go about the music scenes, as we were making it. We kind of figured it out, and I think we pulled it off, I’d say.

Chris Appelhans: I remember doing the final mix on the Sony lot and seeing it on a giant screen with the music turned up so loud and all the finished lighting and animation. I just remember hanging out with the crew who came to that, and everyone was kind of just vibrating. And I remember thinking, “This is not normal.”

I mean, you always feel proud of what you’ve made, but there’s this sort of euphoria that we all felt. I’m like, “I don’t know what it means, but it feels unique,” and now I see that going to the sing-alongs. I’m like, “Oh, we’re all feeling it now together.” So that was awesome.

ScreenRant: You mentioned all the pieces coming together. What would you say was the biggest challenge or biggest nut to crack when you were putting it together?

Maggie Kang: It’s always story. That’s the thing that you spend the most time on. You start with it–you start with the draft and figuring that out and all the brain power that goes into crafting that–but that’s not where it ends with animation. You’re just writing to the last possible moment until you are at the recording session and the words need to be spoken by the actor.

And even then you could kind of grab something from another clip and swap out words. So, until it’s fully animated with the dialogue that will be in the final thing, you’re able to write and change things. So you’re just constantly writing. And so it’s all about story, and that’s the thing that takes the most time.

Musically, the song that was most difficult for songwriter and performer EJAE may not be the one you’d expect:

ScreenRant: What was the hardest song to write and why?

EJAE: “How It’s Done” was hard. It [had] so many different versions. It’s the intro scene. It’s such an important scene. It was the first impression of the movie, so it was going to be an iconic scene, and just to match up to that energy, it was [like,] “No pressure.”

So much pressure. So, we had lots of versions for that. Different song versions, literally, and demos… seriously, 30? 40? It [had] different тιтles.

The performers behind HUNTR/X are just as excited as Appelhans and Kang about the film’s reception.

Audrey Nuna: Shoutout to our 7-year-old selves. Honestly, because I think it’s representation at its highest level of excellence. It’s just cool to see how this movie hasa connected with so many people on just a human-to-human level, but also for it to be acclaimed critically for what it is. I think that’s a really hard pocket to occupy. It’s super validating.

EJAE: [And] not just as a songwriter, not as just as a singer, not as just a director. Also, for us, at least for me as a Korean American, it means so much.

HUNTR/X Singers Share Their Favorite KPop Demon Hunters Songs

There are enough HUNTR/X songs in KPop Demon Hunters to make audiences feel like the fictional band isn’t so fictional after all. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami shared which of the pieces of music they worked on meant the most to them.

ScreenRant: What song do you personally relate to the most and why?

EJAE: “Golden”.

Audrey Nuna: “What It Sounds Like”.

Rei Ami: Yeah. [“What It Sounds Like”] was a tough one to record for me.

EJAE: For me, it was “Golden” for sure. I was going through a hard time when writing it, and I was in K-pop training myself, and that was also really, really hard [with a lot of] feeling like you’re not enough.

The song was about striving to get that dream. I really wanted that dream so badly, so putting that in the lyric and singing it… I did cry recording the demo, so that song just means a lot to me. I think it gives me a lot of hope.

KPop Demon Hunters Creatives Respond To Fan Reactions

Even with knowledge that the project they were working on was special, the creatives behind KPop Demon Hunters couldn’t have expected the film to blow up the way it has. Kang, Appelhans, and the HUNTR/X performers shared their favorite and most memorable experiences taking in fan reactions.

ScreenRant: What has been the most surprising reaction that you’ve had so far?

EJAE: The “napalm era” line [in “Takedown”] I didn’t know that would be so trendy.

Rei Ami: I also think it has a lot to do with how Audrey delivered it. It’s cute. It’s spicy.

EJAE: When I wrote it with Mark [Sonnenblick], I would just kind of spit random melodies. I [just mumbled something,] and he goes, like, “Did you say ‘napalm era?’ I’m like, “What’s napalm?” And he goes like, “That’s iconic. Put that down.”

Audrey Nuna: [We see] those TikToks of people just doing it in the most random places, and it’s pretty surreal. We did that line so many times to get it right. I think we ended up going with third take or something crazy. It was very just fun to do, so it just came out that way.

Asked the same question, the directors had the following to say:

Maggie Kang: I mean, we love hearing about those reactions, and we’re seeing a lot of the dad reactions right now. [To their kids,] they’re like, “Wait, what are you watching? And then kids are going back to school and they’re like, “Is it okay if I watch this by myself without my children?” It’s like, “Yes.” So we’re loving those.

Chris Appelhans: The kids kind of blew me away with the depth of understanding. I’m sure they don’t understand everything, but they kind of understand everything. Just the journey of the girls, the finding a way to be honest and express yourself.

I think kids’ inner lives are incredibly sophisticated, even if they don’t have this vocabulary for it. But I was still kind of blown away that they not only loved the music, but kind of understood what the theme of the whole thing was.

What Mysteries Will KPop Demon Hunters 2 Answer?

Development on KPop Demon Hunters 2 has been announced, inviting questions about what unresolved concepts and questions from the first film will be explained in the sequel. While Kang and Appelhans have not been confirmed to direct the follow-up, they have already been thinking about what the film might be, as have the members of HUNTR/X.

ScreenRant: What unanswered question are you most wanting to explore? I think Rumi’s parentage is obviously a big one. I need Jinu to not be ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Maggie Kang: I think we’ll have to see. We don’t want to just answer questions for the sake of answering questions. It would have to be required by the story, and so yeah, there’s a lot of demands, I think, from the fans, and there’s other ways to address those if it comes down to it.

Chris Appelhans: I think a good 90-minute theatrical story is meant to capture one of the, or the essential moment in somebody’s life, right? That’s [why] you start the story where you do, and you try to show that moment where everything changed.

But what’s fun about a second chapter is [that] you can’t use that exact structure anymore. You have to go somewhere new, and the characters, whatever growth needs to happen in them, it has to be interesting enough to warrant another hour and a half. Finding out what that is and finding that story is something that is really fun and rewarding as storytellers.

HUNTR/X had a more direct response.

ScreenRant: Obviously there are so many unanswered questions in the movie. What is the number one that you want answered in a sequel or prequel?

Rei Ami: Who is the father?

EJAE: Yeah. Rumi’s father. Rumi’s parents. [I’m] very curious.

How Fan Theories Might Influence KPop Demon Hunters 2

When asked about their favorite fan theories, KPop Demon Hunters directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans shared how surprisingly insightful posts and TikTok comments may achieve a fan’s dream and affect the course of the sequel’s story. Of course, they’re joking. Or are they?

ScreenRant: Do you have a favorite fan theory that you’ve read?

Chris Appelhans: Oh gosh. There was this one fan theory. I mean, it might’ve been that it was 4:00 AM and I was still on TikTok, but I got all emotional reading it.

Maggie Kang: Really?

Chris Appelhans: It wasn’t a fan. It was a fan fiction where they were actually, Rumi dies on Juju, and the finale is this poetic hallucination. It was like her spirit showed up or something.

Whoever came up with it, it was very moving. It was like somebody copied and pasted it into a TikTok comment. It’s this long ᴀss paragraph. And I was reading, like [miming wiping tears from his eyes] “What’s happening? I need to go to bed.”

Maggie Kang: Yeah, I read that too. That’s pretty crazy. There’s a few… don’t want to talk about some of them [because it’s] like, “Ooh I’m gonna use these.” But there’s some ones that I find interesting.

I think it’s also because there’s a lot of reuse of ᴀssets that happen, like characters and props, and a lot of fans are making these connections like, “Oh, this person is this person,” or “This prop is this,” and it’s fun to see that, but we’re like, “Oh, that was really just a budgetary thing.” I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. Yeah, we did that purposely.”

KPop Demon Hunters is on Netflix.