7 Behind-the-Scenes ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Facts Fans Need to Know

It took 7 years to make ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

KPop Demon Hunters’ success seemed to come out of nowhere, but the animated movie has been in the works for years.

As co-director Maggie Kang told The New York Times in July 2025, it was “almost seven years to the day, from pitching it to the release” of KPop Demon Hunters, recalling how she proposed the concept at “the height of BTS” fever.

“So I don’t think it was a hard sell in that regard. If you were not living under a rock, you knew how big BTS and K-content were,” Kang explained.

Before the animated movie premiered on Netflix, she shared an early sketch of Rumi on X that dated back to April 2016.

The demon hunters weren’t originally a K-pop group

It’s hard to imagine the story of HUNTR/X members Rumi, Mira and Zoey without K-pop, but that’s how it started.

According to Kang, she wanted to see more representation of Korean culture in animation and decided to do so by incorporating demonology into the storyline, leading to the creation of the singers.

So the demon hunters were originally more in the vein of Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the K-pop element was added later.

“It was another Korean thing that I could add in and have it be their public-facing persona,” she explained to Mashable in July 2025. “And that made it a great pitching point and gave it that spectacle and brought scale, and obviously made it a musical.”

The songs were written and recorded without specific movie scenes in mind

The music of KPop Demon Hunters fits seamlessly into the plot, but the songs were written and recorded before producers knew where they would appear in the final film.

“We were always writing for the narrative of the film, but we wanted to make sure that they could be stand-alone records,” Ian Eisendrath, the movie’s music producer, told Tudum.

Still, the creatives had an idea of scenes in the animated film, including when the Saja Boys performed before the villainous Gwi-Ma (Byung Hun Lee). The moment inspired “Your Idol.”

“They knew the story, and what they were going to wear, and so it just kept being called the ‘Black Hats’ song,” Eisendrath told the outlet. “We just kept seeing these pictures, which were so demonic [and] chic.”

He continued, “We went through a few different options but finally landed at [the final version], which just feels heavy and dark and brooding — but also sort of thrilling.”

“How It’s Done” was inspired by ‘West Side Story’

“How It’s Done,” the song HUNTR/X performed while slaying demons at the beginning of the movie, was inspired by a number from the classic musical West Side Story.

“Jet Song,” which introduced the audience to the Jets street gang in the Tony-winning Broadway musical, was used as a model for presenting the KPop Demon Hunters girl group trio to the audience.

“It was so important that we had something that felt like a K-pop hit [and] felt like when you first heard Blackpink,” Eisendrath explained to Tudum.

“It had to have that energy, it had to set up a unique sonic world for these three girls and how they sing together,” he continued. “And it also had to be a banging opening number that everyone just was drawn into.”

HUNTR/X and the Saja Boys drew from multiple K-pop groups

HUNTR/X’s look was drawn from a compilation of multiple K-pop groups, including ITZY, BLACKPINK and TWICE, Kang told Forbes in June 2025.

“I think it was a lot of mixing,” she added.

In the same vein, the Saja Boys have elements of K-pop boy bands like BTS, Monsta X, BIGBANG, ATEEZ, Tomorrow X Together and Stray Kids.

“For the Saja Boys, our art team, which included some serious K-pop fans, leaned into boy group archetypes,” co-director Chris Appelhans revealed to Mashable. “We didn’t base any of them on one specific idol, but you can definitely find parallels across different groups.”

“It was more of a love letter to boy band personas,” he added.

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ and ‘Squid Game’ casted the same actor for villain parts

KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game share a villain, with Korean actor Lee Byung-hun playing a bad guy in both projects.

In Squid Game, he portrayed the Front Man, and in KPop Demon Hunters, he was cast as the English and Korean voice for Gwi-Ma, the evil ruler of the Demon Realm.

Saja Boys all share the same CG body — except for one

The Saja Boys members all have distinct personalities, but the same CG body — except for Abby Saja, who made fans swoon with his muscular physique.

“He’s a little bit bigger,” Kang told Forbes. “We bulked him up like 20%.”

Meanwhile, Mystery Saja’s look was inspired by anime and his face was purposely hidden by his hair.

On the other hand, one of the goals with HUNTR/X’s appearance was to ensure each member was distinct, from their body type to style.

“With their smile, you’ll notice Zoey has more of a heart-shaped mouth when she expresses herself,” the creator said. “We wanted Mira to be long and lean because I love that look on a woman. I think that’s so beautiful. With Rumi, we leaned into a very classic, beautiful Korean look.”