No one would have expected an animated children’s movie about the K-pop industry would break records on music charts and would become the most-watched Netflix original content in the history of the OTT platform, but Sony Animation Studio’s KPop Demon Hunters has achieved the seemingly impossible. Its catchy soundtrack has taken the world by storm and even made Billboard records.
KPop Demon Hunters is a modern movie that will reshape the industry by helping the animated musical genre become bigger than it’s ever been. It’s also another significant step towards bridging the language barrier that Bong Joon-Ho addressed in his 2020 Oscar acceptance speech. KPop Demon Hunters showed that audiences are much less apprehensive of subтιтles today, even for music.
KPop Demon Hunters also proves that Sony Animation is here to stay as a major studio alongside Disney and DreamWorks, and their Spider-Verse franchise isn’t a one-off. It’s also demonstrated that straight-to-OTT releases also have a theatrical pull, and KPop Demon Hunters is returning to theaters for Halloween again. So, the sequel, KPop Demon Hunters 2, is an exciting prospect!
KPop Demon Hunters Left Plenty Of Room For Future Movies
KPop Demon Hunters follows three K-pop idols, Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), Zoey (Ji-young Yoo), the lead vocalist, primary dancer, and main rapper of the ficтιтious K-pop group Huntr/x. Their magical voices allow them to use their singing to fight demons that steal human souls after breaching the Honmoon, which is the boundary between the human and demon realms.
The lore of the demon king Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) and the demon Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop), who becomes Rumi’s love interest in the film, reveals that shame plays a role in how people’s souls are stolen by Gwi-Ma to become demons. The exact means by which souls are stolen is unknown, but this leaves space for plot twists and new revelations.
The magic system in KPop Demon Hunters is a soft one. The characters’ singing makes their weapons glow and capable of cutting down demons. Their uplifting voices can save the souls of those whom the demons have been preying on, which helps seal the Honmoon and turn it golden. However, we don’t know how their singing achieves this effect yet.
Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami sing as Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, respectively, in KPop Demon Hunters.
Moreover, fandom is an important aspect of KPop Demon Hunters, as Huntr/x fights with the demon K-pop boy group Saja Boys on two levels. Beyond literally dueling with weapons, they also musically compete to win over fans. If the demons can win them over, they’ll steal all those souls, and if Huntr/x retains their fanbase, that will seal the Honmoon.
Fans have also pointed out that Mira has characteristics that suggest she may also be of demon descent like Rumi, and while many more theories have been popping up on social media over the past few months, this remains the most exciting one that we’d like confirmation on. Directors have revealed KPop Demon Hunters 2 might use such fan fiction.
A KPop Demon Hunters sequel can address the unanswered questions that its expansive lore and its fascinating musical magic system have left. Moreover, there is space for expanding on the lore of the demons and the demon hunters, including the scope to explore the origin of the magical music that the hunters sing, and the exact way the Honmoon works.
A Live-Action KPop Demon Hunters Movie Would Never Work
The first thing you notice about KPop Demon Hunters is the energy in the characters’ motion. The way space visually warps to highlight them and their choreography as they fight demons while singing and dropping out of a crashing airplane immediately pulls you in and injects you with a similar energy that gets you grooving and feeling an adrenaline rush.
KPop Demon Hunters is a movie that leans into the whimsy afforded by the medium of animation, using visual tricks that you’d never see in real life to amplify the already moody atmosphere you expect from a K-pop concert, even in scenes when they’re not performing in front of a crowd. The fight scenes involve maneuvers only possible in animation.
The entire climax with the performances of “Your Idol” and “What It Sounds Like” wouldn’t have the immersive appearance it does in a live-action rendition. The freedom of animation allows the demons to look silly and frightening at the same time, and creates a visually stimulating atmosphere. Recreating that in live-action would involve using an immersion-breaking amount of CGI.
What We Know About KPop Demon Hunters’ Future
Director Maggie Kang’s response about the chances of a live-action KPop Demon Hunters movie initially revealed that she was intrigued by the idea and wouldn’t be opposed to exploring how the story could be translated to the live-action medium without losing its nature. She cited How to Train Your Dragon to say that making a live-action version could be interesting.
However, Maggie Kang’s new response to the live-action KPop Demon Hunters question reᴀssures me that this is no longer a proposal she considers meritable. She also pointed out that animation allows creators to push the boundaries of possibility, and I wholeheartedly agree with her. I’m excited about the sequels now that the talk of a live-action version is hopefully over.
Sony and Netflix are working on a deal for KPop Demon Hunters 2, and while plot details and release or production dates are far from being finalized, an animated sequel looks guaranteed. The prospect of more intoxicating, unforgettable music is probably what excites me most about this news. It’s also relieving to know a live-action version isn’t in the works.
