‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Director Maggie Kang Talks Awards Season, Sequel

Halfway through awards season, “KPop Demon Hunters” creator and codirector Maggie Kang is still checking items off her bucket list.

“I got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio yesterday to finally tick that box,” Kang says.

It’s the day after the Oscar nominees luncheon, which included a “class photo” featuring all of this year’s nominated talent. “It was either my third or fourth Academy event, and they’ve progressively become more fun because you just get more and more comfortable in the room and with seeing really famous people,” she adds. “[Steven] Spielberg’s there, and he’s like two feet away from you — you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is crazy.’”

For other nominees, Kang might be that “oh my gosh” person to meet as the creator and codirector of one of this year’s most popular films. Released last summer, “KPop Demon Hunters” was the most streamed film of 2025, and is Netflix’s most-watched film of all time. 

“The movie’s kind of taken on another life. It’s like a child that we released into the world that’s just out there doing great things, and you’re like a proud parent watching from afar,” Kang says. “To be able to speak to that is a really cool opportunity, because not every filmmaker gets to do that,” she adds. “I do think it’s important, especially because I’m an Asian woman, and there’s not a lot of directors that look like me in the live-action space or in the animation space. And so I take that responsibility to heart.”

The film has racked up accolades to match its ongoing popularity. So far this season, it’s taken home awards for best animated film and best original song at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, and is a frontrunner in the same categories at the Oscars next month. 

The film has appealed to audiences across all ages, infiltrating culture and boosting the profile of the talent behind the animated voices. There are the songwriters and singers behind “Golden,” the first K-pop song to win a Grammy award last month. The singing trio — Eja, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami — have become a familiar presence at events in past months and aligned themselves closely with the fashion industry; Kevin Woo, one of the singing voices of rival boy group the Saja Boys, has similarly been out and about performing “Soda Pop” in recent months. Lead male voice actor Ahn Hyo-seop, already an A-list star in South Korea, is getting introduced to new audiences through the film.

Kang is also quick to applaud the film’s less visible behind-the-scenes talent who helped animate the characters onscreen. “ We really genuinely felt every department and every person who came on board poured everything that they had into it,” she says.

While the film continues to rack up awards, one of the most rewarding impacts of it for Kang arrived much earlier, during her first trip to South Korea after it was released. 

“I could just feel so much love from the homeland,” she says. “That was something I really worried about, because for the first time in my life, I had this identity crisis of I’m Korean — but am I Korean enough to make this movie? Am I Korean enough to take these elements, our culture, and put my twist to it and do some things that take liberties with the folklore?” she says. 

The film’s popularity has also impacted Korean tourism, and contributed to a large spike in attendance at the National Museum of Korea last year. 

Kang, who grew up in Toronto, spent her early career working at leading animation studios — DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Illumination — and is steeped in the elements that go into creating animated stories with broad appeal. 

Kang pitched her concept for “Kpop Demon Hunters” at the height of BTS’ popularity, shortly before the members’ mandatory military enlistment. The idea was rooted in a “mashup” of Korean demons and a “badass group of girls.” 

“I knew that a lot of studios were trying to figure out a K-pop property, and so we were like, does K-pop fit into this? Could it just be part of this thing?” she says. “It felt fun: the promise of fight scenes that go into music video mode. All that just felt visually and conceptually really stunning and fun for animation.”

A week after her initial pitch, she had a deal in place to develop her story concept of a K-pop girl group who were also secret demon hunters, trying to save their fans and the world from a nefarious force. Almost a year into the development process, Chris Appelhans came onboard the project as Kang’s codirector and cowriter.

Kang maintains that she would have pursued a career in fashion if she hadn’t gone into film. Although costumes in animated films are rarely highlighted, fashion played an important role in Kang’s creation of the film’s characters.

“The fashion had to be really great — it had to be just as good as what we see on real-life K-pop stars,” she says. “The costumes also play into the themes of the movie and culturally specific elements are in there, because in every part of this movie we really wanted to inject Korean design elements, and make it as Korean as possible.” In addition to depicting traditional Korean outfits, the sartorial color palette pulled from Korean folk art and temples.  

With all of the film’s success and sustained excitement from audiences, conversation has naturally turned toward the potential for a sequel.

“ I’ve been reading about so many demands from the fans. Like, ‘We want this…the sequel needs to be…,’” Kang says. “We hear it all. But if we were to tell another story, I think it’ll have to be something that Chris and I just want to tell. The first movie is exactly that. We didn’t feel any pressure from anybody else,” she adds. “Whatever we create is gonna be something from the heart, and from our hearts, and what we wanna see. I think there’s a path that can be explored.”

Vague, yes, but Kang is dedicated to following a similar formula that made the first film so successful: lean into and trust her own storytelling sensibilities. 

“That’s always scary, because you just don’t know what people are going to think about, you know, popcorn coming out of a girl’s eyes,” she adds, calling out one of the film’s memorable moments. “We’re like, ‘This could be too weird. This could be something people don’t understand’ — but obviously they do, and they want more of it.”