Inside the Netflix Film’s Viral Success

Huntr/x is here to show us how it’s done, done, done.

The fictional girl group at the heart of “KPop Demon Hunters” uses the power of their voices to slay soul-eating foes and protect their adoring fans – a rabid group that’s expanded well past just the animated devotees depicted in the film. Rumi, Mira and Zoey may not be squaring off against any real-life demons (that we know of), but they are slaying the charts in real life.

“KPop Demon Hunters,” produced by Sony Pictures Animation and released by Netflix on June 20, has reached the streamer’s Top 10 in all 93 countries tracked, and hit No. 1 in 33 countries including South Korea, Brazil, France, Mexico and the Philippines.

“For me, it’s been seven years since I pitched this, almost to the day,” co-director Maggie Kang tells Variety of the film’s viral success, which she says she never saw coming. “You’re really working in a hole. You have no idea. You’re looking at the same stuff over and over again for a few years: the same jokes, the same moments.”

The flick follows Huntr/x as they square off against their toughest foe yet: a hot demon boy band, the Saja Boys, who hope to steal the girls’ fans (and their souls). Once it’s revealed that lead vocalist Rumi is actually half-demon, she forges an unexpected bond with Saja Boys’ leader Jinu, embarking on a musical journey of self-acceptance.

Throughout that journey, Rumi, Mira and Zoey are, of course, glamorous and badass as they light up the stage and slice through demons – but they’re also unafraid to wipe off their makeup and get silly, frequently pulling wild facial expressions that could only be achieved through animation.

“That was one of first ingredients of the concept. I really wanted to see women act stupid,” Kang says, adding that she’d faced pushback when attempting to create comedic women on a past project.

“I have an experience of working on a different movie where we had one [female] character among five or six main characters, and she was also a twin,” Kang says. “She was played by a phenomenally talented, funny comedian. We were watching all these screenings, and we were like, ‘Why isn’t she funny? We need to have her pop.’ I was like, ‘Well, her brother is the funniest one. Why don’t we just swap it and make her the funniest thing?’ And it was just silence in the room. There was this fear of portraying female characters in a fun light, or making them the funniest one in the room, or making them look ugly and unattractive.”

When it came time to create Huntr/x, Kang had just one thought about that previous feedback: “Screw that!” Giggling as she recalls telling her team to animate “cavernous nostrils” on the girls, she adds, “We could see freckles and bags under their eyes and unfilled eyebrows. We used that look for moments where the girls were most vulnerable.”

The endless meme-ability of those faces (with or without makeup) and the film’s universal themes have cemented “KPop Demon Hunters” as a critical darling, boasting a 97% fresh rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and receiving a positive review from Variety’s Peter Debruge, who called the film “as catchy as the Korean music phenom that inspired it.”

Speaking of the music, it’s impossible to extricate the success of “KPop Demon Hunters” from its no-skip soundtrack, featuring instant hits that seamlessly combine K-Pop style with musical theater-like storytelling reminiscent of Alan Menken’s best work at Disney. Huntr/x has quickly become the third most-streamed K-Pop group in the world (bested only by juggernauts BTS and Stray Kids), and the film’s album has landed as the highest-debuting soundtrack of 2025 and the first to bow in the top ten this year.

For executive music producer Ian Eisendrath, getting a co-sign from real-life K-Pop sensations Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Chaeyoung (of the mega-popular girl group Twice) lent the project some much-needed street cred amongst fans of the genre. “We’ve created this fictional group, and then to have the real thing authenticate it gave me faith in what we were doing – that they were interested, that they were willing. You never know when you dive into these things that are narrative, if they’re going to land in the music space outside,” he says. The Twice trio ultimately recorded their own version of Huntr/x’s diss track “Takedown” and even appear in the film’s credits, while the group’s song “Strategy” also plays in the film and on the soundtrack.

“I find K-Pop to be the most theatrical genre of music today, and that obviously lends itself to the story and the screen,” Eisendrath tells Variety. “Our goal from day one was to have the songs double-function as songs that forward or comment on the action story, because I do not believe you can take up screen time and not have it do something for the story.”

He’s particularly glad that fans have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat, as they can glean the deeper meanings behind the earworms. Case in point: Saja Boys’ bubblegum bop “Soda Pop,” partly inspired by BTS hits like “Butter” and “Dynamite,” may sound like a sweet declaration of puppy love. But a deeper listen reveals the demons’ true predatory nature.

“The idea was to innocently and naively seduce the fans. To show up and be the most adorable, sexy in some ways, light, fun,” Eisendrath says. “It’s actually saying, ‘I’m gonna prey on you.’ That’s what these demons do. They suck your souls. But you would never know it!”

Physical versions of the soundtrack were quickly added to Netflix’s online shop, which saw a rise of 400% in new customers to the site following the launch of “KPop Demon Hunters.” What started as a limited drop is growing fast, with loads of new merchandise added within the last week, plus kids’ apparel, accessories, home goods and more on the way. The collection’s top two sellers, a band tee and a plushie depicting a “derpy” mystical tiger have already entered the top five for Netflix’s best-selling items of the year.

“We pulled from what we love: great fashion, weird girls and great pop music, and a tone that’s more bold than maybe normally you try for animation,” co-director Chris Appelhans says of why fans can’t seem to get enough.

At a time when countless think pieces have been penned about the downfall of original animation, particularly in the light of recent box office flops from major players like Pixar, Applehans says studios should look to broaden their outlook, instead of relying on tired tropes. “The audience can tell that there’s passion and belief in every choice. The conventional wisdom about what an animated film can be is narrower than it should be in the U.S. It’s a narrower vision than what’s possible, and audiences are outgrowing that.” Netflix, for one, is doubling down on original toons, with “In Your Dreams” and “Fixed” set to hit the streamer later this year.

If given the opportunity to craft a sequel to “KPop Demon Hunters,” Kang says she’d love to expand on Zoey and Mira’s upbringings more. “We’ve set up so much for potential backstory. Obviously, there’s a lot of questions that are left unanswered and areas that are not explored, and we had to do that because there’s only so much movie you could tell in 85 minutes. This was Rumi’s story, and we have backstories for Zoey and Mira – ones that we actually put in the movie, but it just kind of rejected it. It just wasn’t the movie for those stories,” she says.

Kang’s greatest hope is that the success of “KPop Demon Hunters” will encourage Hollywood dealmakers to think carefully about the kinds of stories that audiences really want. “When you when you create IP that is exciting to people, everyone’s inspired,” she says. “I just hope that this lights a fire under some people who can make those decisions, because it can be really beautiful and special, even though it’s scary.” Just like fighting demons.