KPop Demon Hunters might be breaking Netflix records, but its creator Maggie Kang has no plans to see her hit film remade in live-action.
“There’s so many elements of the tone and the comedy that are so suited for animation,” Kang told the BBC. “It’s really hard to imagine these characters in a live-action world. It would feel too grounded. So totally it wouldn’t work for me.”
The film follows Huntr/x, a wildly popular K-pop girl group who moonlight as demon slayers, facing off against their supernatural rivals, the Saja Boys. It’s a hyper-coloured collision of choreography, chaos and charm — one that could only really work in animated form.
Kang’s co-director Chris Appelhans agrees. “One of the great things about animation is that you make these composites of impossibly great attributes,” he told the BBC. “Rumi can be this goofy comedian and then singing and doing a spinning back-kick a second later and then free-falling through the sky.”
“The joy of animation is how far you can push and elevate what’s possible,” he added. “I remember they adapted a lot of different anime [into live action] and often times, it just feels a little stilted.”
While some studios might be eyeing a live-action reimagining, Kang has made it clear she’s focused on expanding the animated universe instead. Variety previously reported that Netflix and Sony are already in talks for a sequel — something Kang is more than ready for.
“We’ve set up so much for potential backstory,” she told the outlet. “Obviously, there’s a lot of questions that are left unanswered and areas that are not explored, and we had to do that because there’s only so much movie you could tell in 85 minutes.”
“This was Rumi’s story, and we have backstories for Zoey and Mira – ones that we actually put in the movie, but it just kind of rejected it. It just wasn’t the movie for those stories.”
Since its June premiere, KPop Demon Hunters has exploded beyond the screen. The movie’s soundtrack — packed with original K-pop hits — made history as the first album ever to land four songs in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. Its lead single “Golden” has ruled at No. 1 for eight straight weeks, while a sing-a-long version released in August pulled $18 million at the box office in a single weekend.
