KPop Demon Hunters directors and filmmakers sat down at a press conference to discuss Netflix's success, the art of creating songs, and the film's impact on the global audience. Netflix's musical animated sensation has been consistently in the streamer's Top 10 list ever since it made its debut on June 20, 2025, and the hype keeps on growing. In addition to topping Netflix's Top 10, the movie's original soundtrack has become a global playlist staple, while its sing-along version's brief theatrical release dominated the box office, further cementing its success.
KPop Demon Hunters showed no signs of slowing down after it became Netflix's most-viewed movie of all time in August 2025, garnering over 266 million views (and counting). The movie's success was generational, considering that it is an original IP that embraced the spotlight and never looked back. While talks of a sequel to KPop Demon Hunters are inevitable, more notable quotes about Netflix's most-watched movie emerged at a recent press event.
The Direct attended a virtual press conference for KPop Demon Hunters attended by directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhands alongside Ejae (Rumi's singing voice and songwriter), Audrey Nuna (Mira's singing voice), and Rei Ami (Zoey's singing voice). They talked about rehearsals, the movie's global impact and success, and the process of creating the film and its incredible songs.
While talking about rehearsals for their upcoming live performance on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon on October 7, Ejae reflected on the writing process for Golden (perhaps the most iconic song in KPop Demon Hunters), admitting that "Golden [is] a hard song." Director Maggie Kang agreed, noting that the song was "very hard to write."
Rei Ami, the vocalist for Zoey, also reflected on her character's journey while singing "What It Sounds Like," noting that it was the song where "Zoey was required to completely strip all those people-pleasing tendencies."
Meanwhile, Audrey Nuna, the vocalist for Rumi, shared that "How It's Done" is the song that holds the most meaning for her because there was something in the song that "reminded [her] of kind of when [she] was also falling in love with K-pop as a 10-year-old."
KPop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang also touched on balancing authenticity in representing K-pop for the Netflix movie, pointing out that it all boiled down to "kind of [approaching] it on a personal level" and "a personal relationship to music."
Some notable quotes from the virtual press conference of KPop Demon Hunters can be read below.
Maggie Kang & the Cast on the Rehearsals for their First Live Performance
- Question: "You are doing your first live performance. It's hard to believe that this is the first live performance, and that's happening next week on 'Tonight with Jimmy Fallon.' Can you y'all talk about just that, like, the moment you got the news? What's the prep been like?"
Audrey Nuna: "We keep trying to come up with new adjectives."
Ejae: "I know."
Audrey: "Let's try again."
Ejae: "Yeah. What was it? I like the wonderful...
Audrey: "Scrumptious...
Ejae: "I like that wonderful...
Audrey: "Wonderful cocktail of wonderfulness. Key lime pie."
Rei: "Samgyupsal." *laughs*
Rei: "I think we're all so honored and so excited. You want to talk about rehearsals?"
Ejae: "Rehearsals are incredible. Oh my god. We had so much fun. And, like, we've never sang together, and I'm just learning from these ladies, because they're incredible artists themselves and performers, and just the synergy with all of us. Golden's a hard song."
Maggie Kang: "When we were writing 'Golden,' which was very, very hard to write, we wrote many, many different drafts that were very different from what we have now. And I constantly asked, Ejae, 'Can you sing higher? And she's like, 'Okay,' and then I'll be like, 'No, can we go higher? And, yeah...
Ejae: "I did it y'all. It took lots of energy."
Audrey: "We're blessed to have seen this woman in real life, sing this song for probably, like, the first time in the like world, maybe, I mean, in rehearsal, and just to be in the presence of this, honestly, generational talent is for us, just like she learns from us, she was saying, but we also learn so much from just everything that you do."
Ejae: "It's such a hard song, but I can sing it with these girls by my side. I'm not kidding.
Audrey: "We sound good together."
Ejae: "No pressure and don't expect so much, but like, you should at the same time, because we work really hard."
Rei Ami on Balancing Zoey's Musical Performance & Emotional Vulnerability
- Question: "Your vocal performances bring to life a character who is both an idol and a demon hunter, which is like a weird, wild, lovely, animated balance. How did you balance the power of a musical performance with the emotional vulnerability of the character?"
Rei Ami: "Well, I think the songs, 'How It's Done' and 'Takedown.' That's very much my lane, the aggression, the high energy, that's just something I [sing] in my sleep. That was so fun. I was encouraged to be even more animated and crazier with our executive music director, Ian, who is a joy to work with. But when it came to songs like 'What It Sounds Like,' Zoey was required to completely strip all those people-pleasing tendencies and look inward and be like, ‘Why do you care about the opinions of others? Why can't you put yourself first? Why are you choosing between the parts of yourself that make you whole? Focus on the whole right?’ And so that just requires me to be brutally honest and not put up this strong facade that I put up a lot, and that was really hard, and that was an emotional journey I had to really process. I even stepped out, I think, at one point, and like, I started crying because I couldn't get it right. It couldn't evoke that honesty, right? I was so frustrated with myself, and obviously, thank God for Ian, he saves me every time. But I think just like how Ejae said, this movie saved them. The music saved me. So 'What It Sounds Like,' it's a very personal one. I'm grateful."
Audrey Nuna on Which HUNTR/X Song Is the Most Meaningful
- Question: Which HUNTR/X song holds the most meaning to you?
Audrey Nuna: "It's such a tough question, because I think they're all so integral to the story. Golden's a classic, for sure. I think for me, the first song that I heard when I was pitched to be a part of the project was 'How It's Done.' And I think there was just something about that song that reminded me of kind of when I was also falling in love with K-pop as a 10-year-old, you know, like the summers my cousins would come over, and I was so sheltered growing up musically, but they would bring all this, like crazy, K-pop.
They introduced us to YG Entertainment and 2NE1, you know, Big Bang. I fainted at a Big Bang concert when I was 12. You know, this stuff really was so formative of who I wanted to become as an artist. So something about how it's done had this, like very just 2010s bold, empowering female energy that really was such a huge, very attractive thing about the project. I felt like it really spoke to just where we are in terms of representing women and just multi-faceted, and yeah, I think that one in particular really got me excited to be a part of."
Director Maggie Kang on Finding the Right Balance in K-Pop Representation
- Question: "Did you have a conversation about balancing authenticity in representing K-pop, which is a very specific Korean phenomenon, while also appealing to a universal and worldwide audience?"
Maggie Kang: "We talked about it a lot, and we wanted to represent the fandom correctly. What's so special about K-pop is the relationship between the idols and the fans. That's so different from anything else. And to honor that, we folded that into the mythology, like, that's the thing, that there's a that's that there's like, that there's a connection. And that connection is this, this magical force that fuels this, this, this Honmoon that protects the world. So we were like, great, we did that part. And then, and then the other stuff, it's hard, and we did feel a lot of pressure not to screw it up. But I think, as directors, you're scared about a lot of stuff and representing things and what people would think, and all you can do is kind of approach it on a personal level.
And we're both really big fans of K-pop. I've watched K-pop and become a K-pop fan since [the first generation]. And so I was, like, nobody can tell me that I'm not a K-pop fan because I was there before all of you. It's kind of how I felt about it. I just approached it as a personal thing, like a personal journey and a personal relationship to the music. And I think everybody, even though people don't know about the specificity of K-pop culture and the fandom, everyone knows what being a fan is. And I think that's the gateway into explaining the other stuff. We didn't want to sit there and explain things to people, throw people in and have them enjoy it, and learn about stuff like, as you are enjoying the movie, through the characters. So that was our approach."
Chris Appelhans on the Challenges of the Movie's Animation
- Question: "What was the most challenging aspect of the animation process, and how did you guys solve it?"
Chris Appelhans: "I think that what Maggie and I really wanted to do, and this was some of our bonding as filmmakers, came from both being huge fans of like Bong Joon-ho, and he has this crazy range of tone, like you're watching the host, and you're like, 'Oh, it's a family comedy. Oh god, it's a horror movie. Wait, now, it's romantic. Now it's this.' We had all these ingredients and all these aspirations to have these girls that were awesome, legitimately glamorous, and magnetic in a way that's like, can compete with in real life, K-pop. And then we wanted them to be like, chugging Bibimbap and being so goofy and wearing their pajama pants, and then off to a K-drama date.
So there was this range, and the animation and music videos, choreography, fighting, probably seven or eight, were really critical ingredients, and the animation had to unify all that. So those girls had to make funny faces and then turn to the camera and look beautiful, and the audience had to go with it. And that's a technical challenge, it's a design challenge. It's a reference for the animator's challenge. And we just had an amazing team at Sony that was able to kind of span all that stuff and hold it together."
Maggie Kang on Women's Representation in KPop Demon Hunters
- Question: "What are the key elements from a woman's perspective that you want to tell about women and to receive for the new generation and the old generation?"
Maggie Kang: "I think for me, the most important thing is I wanted to see really silly women. I think we're so afraid, especially in animation, to show female characters be really silly and be the silliest one in the room. And I've personally experienced that working on films where we have a troupe of, I don't know, five, six main characters, and one happens to be the one [female] character. And we always struggle. We have these hours-long meetings about, 'How do we make this one female character unique?' And there is a time when I suggested, 'Well, why don't we make take the funniest character and give it to the girl and make her the funniest?' And it'd be like, 'Let's not do that.' And I was really frustrated by that.
And so when it came to making this movie, I was like, 'Let's make all of them silly.' And I just wanted to see just this kind of woman. And I really think there's empowerment and strength in comedy. It takes a ton of courage to be funny, pitch jokes, and be silly in front of somebody. And if you find a group of people that embrace you and your weirdest side, and they are just as weird with you. That is the best type of friendship. And I really wanted to showcase that type of female relationship, because that's what I have with my friends. And you obviously can see that the three of them have it and [they are] very silly. And there's truth and honesty in that as well. It's always something I wanted to see. And so that, I hope that young girls, especially those who are watching this, can learn that there's strength in that, and that is true girl power. So I hope to see a lot of weird, silly girls just growing up and sharing that weirdness with each other and the rest of the world."
Read more about the characters' ages in Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters here.
KPop Demon Hunters is streaming on Netflix.
