The creator of Kpop Demon Hunters is excited about the prospect of more stories

Maggie Kang, creator and co-director of Kpop Demon Hunters, said she was “excited about the prospect of more stories” involving the animated girl group Huntr/x.

Speaking to the BBC during a visit to Europe, Kang explained that although “there’s nothing official we can talk about”, she and co-director Chris Appelhans believe “there’s definitely more we can do with these characters in this world”.

“Whatever it is, it will be a story that deserves a sequel, and it will be something we want to see,” she added.

Kpop Demon Hunters has become a cultural phenomenon this year, Squid overtaking game As the most watched title in Netflix history, with over 325 million views.

The animated film tells the story of a hugely successful K-Pop trio, who give huge concerts while trying to save the world from the forces of evil.

They end up in a battle against a boy band called the Saja Boys, which is made up of demons.

The film has broken record after record. The musical, released in theaters in August, became the first-ever Netflix film to top the US box office.

Its music also topped the US singles and album charts, becoming the first soundtrack in history to simultaneously feature four songs in the US Top 10, something not even Saturday Night Fever could accomplish.

The film’s anthem Golden, sung by Huntr/x, spent eight weeks at number one, tied with Sugar Sugar by The Archies for most time at the top of the charts by an animated act.

There is now a real belief that Kpop Demon Hunters could slay the Oscars.

Critics loved the film, which received a score It has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoesan online review aggregator.

The influential Gold Derby predictions site is now live Favorite for Best Animated Filmbefore Zootopia 2 and Elio.

“Obviously the title alone is Oscar bait,” laughs Chris Appelhans, the American who represents the other half of the directing duo.

“We tried to do something new and it was very difficult and I think we’re really proud of the way it turned out. But if people would reward that, that would be great.”

Another category in which a film must be a strong contender is Best Original Song, where rules stipulate that a film can only enter three numbers.

Netflix has already said that the Academy’s blockbuster hit Golden will be included, but what about the other two slots?

“I think Your Idol is such a hype,” Kang says of the song the Saja Boys sing while feeding their audience’s souls to the evil master Gwi-Ma.

“We’re very proud of the song, but also the sequence. We cheered, we were very proud of it.”

However, Appelhans is Team Huntr/x, which opts for “What it Sounds Like”.

“The ending was a technical challenge, both in songwriting and storytelling,” he explains. “To make a song that’s the climax of your film, with a lot of moving parts, but also a real watered-down song.”

Kang agrees, saying, “It’s the only song that every time I hear it, I cry. It’s very touching.”

“No room for soda pop?” I’m asking about the Saga Boys earworm.

“Maybe we can get four?” Kang laughs.

“We’ll just deliver everything,” joins Appelhans.

Appelhans can point to the exact moment in June when he realized they had a hit on their hands.

“It’s literally 2am the night after the movie came out. I’m on TikTok and in the comments section they perfectly capture Rumi’s emotional journey.”

He was thrilled that fans were actually interacting with the film’s main hero, on a deep level.

Kang, who was born in South Korea and moved to Canada at the age of five, puts his breakout moment a little later. “We were able to connect with our core audience, which is K-Pop fans and anime fans and that demographic took to our film very quickly.

“But it was the third week that the viewership graph really turned around. We were like, ‘Wow, that was weird.’

“And we can see through our social media all the different demographic pockets that were connected to it.”

Kang believes fans were crucial to the film’s rise: “They’re an age group that loves making content. It was like free advertising. They were spreading the word about this film everywhere. I think that helped it develop these long legs.”

The film’s success continues to grow. Four months after its release, it remained the most watched film in 19 countries last week, including the United Kingdom and the United States.

K-pop stars Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna, and EJAY, who provide the singing voices for Huntr/x, have both appeared on Saturday Night Live (in a skit with Bad Bunny) and gave Golden’s first-ever live performance On Jimmy Fallon’s American chat show.

“We were very upset that we couldn’t be there in Fallon,” Kang says in a rare moment of imperfect positivity.

“We were sleeping in Paris. Just seeing him talking to our girls was so surreal. It feels more real now than ever. I’m so proud of them.”

One thing the duo would like to make clear is that they don’t think their film should be classified as an anime.

“I don’t think we’re enough anime fans to be inspired by it,” Kang explains.

“The anime we like is very old school, like Cowboy Bebop and Sailor Moon,” he said, referring to two Japanese TV shows that originated in the 1990s.

Appelhans agrees: “I think it was a flavour. I think we were influenced by a lot of Korean filmmakers and Korean dramas. It was part of a broad range of tones that we wanted to hit, but not the dominant tone.”

They are also quick to dismiss rumors of a live-action Kpop Demon Hunters adaptation.

Kang wants to bring this idea to the underworld. “There are a lot of elements of tone and comedy that are very appropriate for animation,” she says.

“It’s really hard to imagine these characters in the live-action world. It would seem too stilted. So it wouldn’t quite sit right with me.”

For Appelhans, it’s an ill-considered idea: “One of the great things about animation is that you make these combinations of impossibly great themes. Rumi could be this goofy comedian and then he’s singing and doing a back kick a second later and then he’s free falling into the sky.”

“The fun of animation is how much you can push and push the bar of what’s possible. I remember they adapted a lot of different anime and a lot of times, it just seemed a little stilted.”

No matter what happens this awards season, Kang says their expectations for the film have already been exceeded.

She believes the goal was to “connect people and bring them to K-Pop.”

“Just seeing people react to this film was so amazing,” she says.

“So all the awards would be great, but I think we’re really blown away by what the movie has actually done. So it’s like we’ve kind of won in a way.”