What began as a casual voice note audition nearly took a very different turn for Arden Cho.
The voice cast of KPop Demon Hunters — including Arden Cho and Ahn Hyo-seop — recently made their first guest appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where Cho revealed she had originally auditioned for an entirely different role in the animated hit.
“I actually auditioned for Celine,” Cho shared. “And I remember it was August 2022, I just sent a simple voice note. Sounded cool KPop Demon Hunters. I like KPop. I like demon hunting. So why not? And then I didn’t hear anything.”
Nearly a year later, the silence broke — but not in the way she expected.
“About a year later I got an email that was like, ‘Hey would you like to come in for a call back for Rumi?’ And I was like, ‘Wait, the lead?’ Would I like to? I mean of course,” she recalled. Cho flew in from Korea, where she had been on vacation, for an in-person session at Sony. “We had like an hour-long session and then a month later I was working.”
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Her co-star Ahn Hyo-seop also reflected on his first encounter with the project, admitting the title alone raised eyebrows.
“When I first saw the title KPop Demon Hunters I thought okay this could be very interesting or very weird because I’ve never seen KPop and demon hunting at the same time anywhere,” he quipped.
That curiosity quickly turned into conviction. “So when I first read the script I just thought it was really fun, very playful, and also it had a really good message so I thought the kids would definitely love it,” he said. “And I was a big fan of animation as a kid. I know how impactful it is for kids to have these kind of meaningful animations and to be able to be on the other side to give back the message to kids, it just felt really special.”
Released on Netflix, KPop Demon Hunters follows Huntr/x, a K-pop girl group leading a double life as demon fighters. Their secret mission is thrown into chaos when they face off against the Saja Boys — a rival idol group with a dark supernatural secret.
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The film features a stacked voice cast including EJAE, Andrew Choi, May Hong, Audrey Nuna, Ji-young Yoo, Rei Ami, Joel Kim Booster, Kevin Woo, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun and Lea Salonga, and is directed by Maggie Kang.
Since its release, the animated film has become a global phenomenon, earning major accolades including Best Animated Feature at both the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards and the 83rd Golden Globe Awards.
