Maggie Kang seems to be living a whirlwind existence, and you can’t blame her. The creator and co-director of Netflix’s animated sensation, Kpop Demon Hunters, has been jet-setting across the globe, from the Busan International Film Festival to media conferences in Seoul. She even admitted to kicking off her heels and running barefoot to make a connection for a screening.
It’s all a long way from her beginnings as a story artist in Hollywood, a place where she felt like she never quite saw her own culture reflected on screen. Now, her work is being celebrated by millions of people.
Kang, who was born in Seoul and moved to Toronto as a child, has spent years in the Hollywood animation industry. She’d worked on big films like The Lego Ninjago Movie and Kung Fu Panda 3 but never on something that felt truly Korean. So, when she got the chance to pitch her own film, she wanted to honor her roots.
“I’m somebody who’s in both cultures equally,” she told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “I was able to infuse both of the cultures kind of evenly, I would say, into the movie.” The film, she says, is a direct result of her dual identity.
The Soul of the Story
The film’s success isn’t just about catchy songs and flashy fight scenes, although it has plenty of both. Kang explained how she wanted to feature a different kind of female superhero.
“I saw an opportunity with our female characters to show a different kind of female superhero that I felt like I wasn’t seeing—messy and silly and funny, women who eat a lot and are just real and have struggles and flaws.” This approach, she says, was a conscious decision to go against the grain of typical animation. She even had her animators act out goofy faces and moments to get the expressions just right.
The movie’s core themes—shame and self-doubt—are something Kang has wrestled with herself. Growing up as a Korean in Canada, she experienced moments of cultural alienation, like feeling embarrassed to bring Korean food to school. But her parents made sure she never lost touch with her heritage. It’s a feeling that seems to have been passed down to her daughter.
“She wants kimchi for lunch,” Kang said. “And she said if somebody says it smells, I’m gonna tell them to go sit over there because that’s my lunch.”
Read more: KPop Demon Hunters Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Film Ever With 236 Million Views
That sense of pride, of confidently showing who you are, is what has made the film so impactful. Kang says it’s about making content that is authentic to the culture it represents. She’s not trying to make a textbook or a history lesson. Instead, she aims to tell a good story that just happens to be Korean. That honesty seems to be the key to the film’s universal appeal. “The only way for Korean culture to spread globally and grow more popular is to confidently show itself as it is.”
A Global Collaboration
The film’s authenticity wasn’t an accident. Kang and her team, including co-director Chris Appelhans, traveled to Korea to research locations and even got their hands on historical Korean weapons to better represent them. They also brought in a variety of Korean talent, from choreographers like Jo Nain and Lee Jung to veteran Kpop artists and producers from The Black Label.
“I think we are gonna be the ones that kind of introduce that quicker and get that ball moving faster because we are able to hold both cultures,” she said of the many “gyopos” or overseas Koreans on her team.
Despite its global success and being Netflix’s most-watched film of all time, questions have popped up about whether it qualifies as “K-content” since it was produced by a Western studio. Kang is clear on her position.
“I think it is definitely K-content because I’m Korean and the idea originated from me, and also we had many Korean artists who contributed and put their hearts into it,” she said. The film’s soul, she believes, is Korean, and that’s what matters most.
