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By Lydia Patrick
Life & Trends Reporter
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Netflix’s most-watched film of all time began as a simple pitch: a K‑pop girl group who moonlight as demon hunters.
Seven years later, directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans have turned that idea into a global hit with two Academy Award nominations and one of the most passionate fan communities the streamer has ever seen.
Speaking on On with Kara Swisher, the pair reflected on the project’s unlikely rise. Kang said nobody could have predicted the phenomenon of KPop Demon Hunters, even within Netflix.
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“We really loved the film when we finished it and loved it all the way through from the very beginning,” Kang said. “And really, you know, had high hopes that an audience would find it. And if they did, that they would love it just as much as we did.”
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Appelhans said the reception underscored how modern audiences connect. Fan-made videos routinely outperformed Netflix’s official marketing. “When it's made by a fan saying, this is why I love this movie and this is me putting my own time and energy into it. That has its own form of appeal in this age of marketing saturation that I think is kind of amazing,” he said.
What happened next was driven almost entirely by fans, who began generating TikToks, edits and artwork the night it premiered. That wave of grassroots promotion allowed the film to spread across nearly 100 countries within hours.
Though the movie debuted on streaming, both directors credit its later limited theatrical weekend with revealing something deeper. Kang described the screenings as “like going to a concert,” with viewers singing, cheering and reacting in unison. Appelhans said it tapped into a collective experience people increasingly crave.
“There is, I think, a desire. And I'm an agnostic person. I don't go to church. I never did. There's a real desire, I think, culture. for collective experiences of which concerts are and stories are," Appelhans said.
A Korean Story Told Through a New Lens
Kang, who had long hoped to make a culturally Korean film, built the world using everything from ancient shamanism to modern K‑pop aesthetics. She and Appelhans rooted the mythology in mudang traditions, despite early hesitation from some Korean peers.
“This could be the most Korean thing ever,” Kang said, noting they infused details into every frame—makeup styles, food, clothing, even architecture. She wanted the movie to feel like a sci-fi universe filtered entirely through a Korean lens.
Appelhans, who is married to Korean American novelist Maurene Goo, said he immediately understood the characters Kang wanted to create: funny, angry, stylish, emotional girls who didn’t fit the mold of Western animation.
"She's so much more interesting than the characters I see in animation. And so I think that those two things really bonded us and the movie so much the result of those two things trying to reconcile and work together and balance," Appelhans said.
The Anatomy of a Breakout Song
The film’s signature track, “Golden,” now nominated for Best Original Song, was one of the last pieces to come together. Kang said they struggled until executive music producer Ian Eisendrath told them the film needed an “I Want” song—a classic structure that lets characters express desire and backstory.
Through that lens, “Golden” became a way to reveal the trio’s histories without using traditional origin scenes. Appelhans said the song pulled inspiration from K‑pop but also from iconic hip-hop tracks about ambition and survival.
"Here are these three young women. And the pivotal, emotional thing that that song helps you understand about that is they don't really have anywhere else to go but each other," he said.
Hard Choices and Creative Conviction
At one point, after a test screening, both directors realized a version shaped heavily by studio notes wasn’t working. “Did you like that movie?” Kang recalled asking Appelhans. “And he said no. I didn’t like it either.”
They decided to return to their original instincts—a choice that ultimately defined the film.
What Comes Next
A sequel is officially in development, though the filmmakers declined to reveal whether it will follow the same trio or new hunters entirely. After nine months of global promotion, they are only now turning back to the story.
"There's more. We could take it further and I think we're going to push it a lot further than we did with this one and it's kind of given me the courage to do that," Kang concluded.
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