KPop Demon Hunters, the animated sensation following demon-hunting K-pop girl-group Huntr/x, is, without a doubt, getting a sequel. However, if you expected it to be a live-action adaptation — an idea that has been floated around a couple of times since KPop Demon Hunters wasreleased on June 20 — you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Speaking to the BBC, the creators behind Netflix’s biggest movie ever, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, put to rest any rumors that KPop Demon Hunters would be going live-action.
“There’s so many elements of the tone and the comedy that are so suited for animation,” Kang said. “It’s really hard to imagine these characters in a live action world. It would feel too grounded. So totally it wouldn’t work for me.”
Appelhans pointed out that one of the big reasons why animation is so essential to KPop Demon Hunters’ essence. “One of the great things about animation is that you make these composites of impossibly great attributes,” he said. “Rumi can be this goofy comedian and then singing and doing a spinning back-kick a second later and then freefalling through the sky.”
“The joy of animation is how far you can push and elevate what’s possible. I remember they adapted a lot of different animes and, often times, it just feels a little stilted,” Appelhands concluded.
Back when KPop Demon Hunters was first starting to ride the waves of popularity, fans speculated that Netflix would decide that, like everything else nowadays, the next big step would be a live-action adaptation. In my view, to do so would be robbing the IP of many of the elements that make it so special in the first place, so I’m glad to hear that it’s an idea that doesn’t appeal to the creators either.
Besides, there are several other options outside a live-action adaptation that can be developed in the future of the franchise, meaning that we surely haven’t seen the last of KPop Demon Hunters.
“There’s definitely more we can do with these characters in this world,” Kang told BBC. “And whatever it will be, it will be a story that deserves to be a sequel, and it will be something that we want to see.”
