K-Pop Demon Hunters Now Netflix's Most Streamed Film; Sony and Netflix in Talks For Sequel

Since it was first released back in June, K-Pop Demon Hunters has been a genuine phenomenon. A genuine word-of-mouth hit, it has gone on to climb the charts and break record after record. Following a successful one-weekend-only theatrical engagement last week, it has been announced that the film is now  offically the most streamed film on Netflix ever.  It has racked up 236 million views, beating out the 230 million views of the previous record holder Red Notice, an action movie starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.

The film features a K-pop girl-band who, when they are not selling out stadiums, are defending an unknowing populace from the demon menace. The trio are thrown off balance by the arrival of a boy-band who are in fact demons in disguise.

The film screened in cinemas in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand in a singalong edition. It is believed to have taken between $18 million and $20 million in the US alone, which would make it the highest-grossing film of the weekend.

K-Pop Demon Hunters was directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, based on a screenplay written by Kang, Appelhans, Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan. It was based on a story by Kang.

The voice cast features Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Joel Kim Booster, Liza Koshy, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Byung Hun Lee. It features original songs performed by EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, REI AMI, Andrew Choi, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee, Neckwav, and Lea Salonga.

The soundtrack album has also been a smash hit, scoring number one hits on both sides of the Atlantic. The album scored four songs in the Billboard Top 10 simultaneously- the first time this has ever happened.

With all these impressive statistics and records, a sequel seemed like an inevitability- certainly fans have been crying out for one. Now, it has been revealed that Sony Pictures Animation are in early talks with Netflix about producing a sequel. The first film was produced by Sony as part of their licensing deal with the streaming giant.

Kang and Appelhans are both in talks to return to helm the sequel.

It's too early to be talking plot, but co-director Kang has spoken about her hopes for a sequel in an interview with Variety. Particularly, she wants to go beyond lead vocalist Rumi and look into the backstories of fellow Huntr/x members Mira and Zoey.

“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,” Kang said. “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.”

Hopefully, a sequel will allow them to explore this properly. Other details, including possible release date, remain under wraps for now.