When Sony Pictures announced the first time KPOP hunters are devil Once again in 2021, director and writer, and K-POP loved Maggie Kang for a long time (Lego Ninjago) The project imagined as a love message to the first days of this type that I grew up with and the vibrant celebration of Korean culture. As a team with coach coach Chris Abelhanz (I hope the dragon)KANG started formulating a dazzling accuracy of the K-Pop dance design with the Magical Girl Action scene, all of which were concluded in an original animated adventure shown on Netflix on June 20.
KPOP hunters are devil It follows Huntrix, a group of an emerging girl consisting of RUMI, Mira and Zoey (expressed by Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-Young Yoo), because she wanders around Squid gameLee Pyong Hoon). To prevent girls from the cover of the world in light of healing from their music, holds the only plan that can threaten the loyalty of their fans: a supernatural boy of a competitor called Saja Boys.
Before releasing the movie, IO9 spoke with Kang and ApplHands about how the K-Pop Superfans, the lovers of the magic girl, and animation lovers, as well as their hopes of how to inspire their original film are a new wave of legends in the animation industry.
Isaiah Colbert, IO9: What sparked the idea of integrating the world of K-Pop idols while hunting Satan? Was there a specific moment or source of inspiration that led to this unique fusion of music and supernatural movement?
Maggie Kang: It was first conceived as just the idea of a devil fisherman that was a group of really wonderful women who fought the demons of the Korean Satan-a film that was appointed in modern Korea. The K-POP of all of this was a kind of thing that could be added because the devil’s hunting is usually done in the dark alleys. People are not in front of. I just wanted the girls to have a picture of a confrontation for the audience and felt K-POP as a great thing to put the movie in it. I made him naturally and gave him this scene and size.
Path 01: “How is it done.” Huntrix!
KPOP Demon Hunters First offer on Friday! pic.twitter.com/u3y6cq23ch
– Netflix (Netflix) June 16, 2025
IO9: It is clear with this address KPOP hunters are devil Have you set high expectations for both electrical procedures and a dynamic dance sequence as well. KPOP hunters are devil Normally carries a lot of pressure, especially for K-Pop fans who expect it impatiently. How did the team move in this challenge and ensure the delivery of the film on both fronts?
Kang: It was difficult. It is a very sincere mass base that expects a lot on each side. Whether it is design, lighting and animation, we have confirmed that it will depend on what we see in the K-Pop today. Dancing videos that we see are very good. It was like “How do we take what is so great that they do as a real human (and) brought him to the animation and raised it?” Even with some dramatic lighting K-musical lighting, the music video lighting is very beautiful. It was a challenge to bring him into the animated broker and be like, “Well, they did all these amazing things. How do we take one step forward?” It was a lot of discovering first how they do this now and how we can take it in the period because we are animation.
Chris Abelhans: I think Maggie really early said that we all love K-POP, and if we try to make it for Vandom-let’s find the lighting that we think is amazing, and the Choreo that we love, and we go, “O shouted, this is very good”-this is the most honest and sincere way to make the movie. And if we are lucky, the other people who love K-POP will also love it. But this is all that we could control and that was really useful because I felt that you could go to the wonderful music videos and look to be an inspiration for it, “This is a kind of editorial lighting that I always love and always want to see it in animation. I feel what I said, a love message from the medium we know well. We know these special things that you cannot do either.
Kang: Watching it as fans and we want to pay the medium (and) to be the harshest critics.
One of the most difficult things to do for simulation artists is to create a dynamic movement in jewelry pieces.
In these clothes, RUMI has more than 35 individual pieces of jewelry from earrings to chains.
¿A more complex piece? Mira shoulder tassels !!
KPOP DH 20 June! pic.twitter.com/yunfvaqbt– Cruz Contreras (Cruzencanada) June 8, 2025
IO9: What is the most exciting moment in guidance KPOP hunters are devilWhere you press a moment in production when you really felt that you are bringing something unique and private in life?
APPELHANS: In stages. Various scenes have given a different part of the promise. I remember that Maggie is doing some of the truly funny reference videos for a girls conversation and seeing her daily animation – that microscopic comedy appears in our characters – and I am like, “Oh my God, the girls will be really nice, wonderful, strange.” And the first time seeing the wonderful Ramtia and animation. Some of our Korean animation did some things that we did not even ask, they took them and ran with them, and we got butterflies. Like, “Check, my God, we can do this.” We continued to examine the boxes that were part of this ambitious soup.
Kang: Similar to me too. In finding the language of the shape until their eyes and the shapes of the mouth on the face of Korean, we wanted to feel very Korean expressions and the shapes of the girls of the girls to feel as if they were talking to the Korean, although they were speaking in English. One of the solutions we found – one of our amazing animation (Seung Hee Lee) – was really about the mouth angles that are really useful in it. This type of landmarks to know some languages for design and elegance really cracked these problems.
APPELHANS: Every time we heard that the version of the song we finally felt was doing it – whether it was the third attempt or the ninth attempt – when the song really started to hit it and we will feel it in our bowels, it was always, “Oh my God, we did it.
My only contribution to KPOP Demon Hunter. The screaming characters seem to be my thing.
Congratulations to the rest of the serious staff of this movie! Sonyanimation pic.twitter.com/z48xjslspn
– Billybobmartinz May 24, 2025
IO9: Talking about pop songs, the film also includes contributions from talented members twice. How did you get to cooperate with K-POP artists to bring musical elements to KPOP hunters are devil For life? What is the process of ensuring that the soundtrack not only activates the movie, but also complements its emotional essence?
Kang: It was really important for the entire movie to live in the K-Pop space. Cooperation with the actual K-POP artist felt that he finally started our project in the K-POP world. Work with the black brand and all the wonderful pop book writing for BTS, twice, and they finally cooperate with twice. Ian Esandrath, our executive music producer, and Sony Music wanted this album as a real K-POP album, so they gathered this amazing team together and created an album that could stand up in the K-Pop space.
IO9: pECORE, such as animation movies like Red shift and Ultraman: rising The power of animation has shown as a way to tell stories and a bridge in the beloved Fandoms, such as the K-POP and tokusatsu. These films are not only celebrated with vibrant animation and life to the pre -existing Fandoms, but also the Asian Heritage Center and allows characters to mediate in their authentic novels. What is the most important in the K-POP’s global call budget with the importance of Asian-led stories that Asian characters tell?
Kang: One way to answer this is that in animation, we told us a lot of stories about non -living things (and) different animals. And we will not, after a cultural, cultural stories, will not after a different cultural voice that can be very universal. We really are seeing more movies and animation that are listed through a different cultural lens. It is really important to try to display as much diversity as possible in animation because, in the first place, it is still a way for more of the younger audience. We have all these different films in the world that show us this and it seems that we do not really do it in animation. I think this is something we really need to give more diversity at this stage in animation.
APPELHANS: What I saw in 25 years to do this is the extent of the diversity of actual daily crews and talent, and this means everything. Because when Maggie appears with an original idea, there are Korean artists with experience and talented people in each section, and they have no homework. It is their living experience that they bring, their effects, and their favorite things that formed them as artists. This allows us to make movies more interesting and more original than it could have been possible 25 years ago. It is a kind of occurrence under the cover, but it is really promising and exciting.
IO9: What do the fans and your fellow creative colleagues hope for the animation from the experience? KPOP hunters are devil Do you want to share this world story with the world?
Kang: There is nothing like the movie indicating that regardless of the language you are talking about, or the culture in which you grew up, regardless of whether you are a demon, chair or game doll, everyone feels the same things that humans enjoy. Listing stories with characters that excite in a very Korean way and speaking seem very Korean, and I hope that the audience and directors can see that we are all human in the end and we want the same things that are love and acceptance
KPOP hunters are devil Inflores on Netflix starting from June 20.
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