Plenty of demons left to "take down"; Sequel teased by KPop Demon Hunters director

Описание: 메기강 감독 단독인터뷰: 케데헌 성공 비결, 그리고 속편 힌트까지!

KPop Demon Hunters Director Maggie Kang is back in Korea, the home of the genre that inspired her global hit animation.
Our Park Kun-woo sat down with the star director to talk about her journey and what may come next.

Homecoming "Golden."
After shaking the world with "KPop Demon Hunters," director Maggie Kang has returned to Korea the "home of K-pop."

"Every time I come to Seoul I feel like I'm home. So when the plane touches down I just think to myself 'Oh I'm home now.'"

Having spent lots of summers in Seoul as a young girl, Kang says her back-and-forth life between Korea and abroad became a deep source of inspiration.

"All the summers I spent in Seoul I was here, I was experiencing it firsthand. I was feeling everything. I was smelling the smells and that memory just kind of stays with you and you know it almost becomes real. It's like you're reliving your memories and that paired with all the kind of pop culture and references that I learned from Western culture."

Back then, her love for K-pop was often dismissed by her friends abroad, but now she feels a "massive shift" to how K-culture is embraced in the West, making her proud to be a Korean.

"When I was a little bit more insecure I hid it from people. But the older I got, I knew that I've always just had this strong Korean pride so it always had stayed with me. And then to see Korean culture just be more I don't know like just loved and people wanting more of it, I've just seen that gradually happen where now it's kind of unavoidable. You go to a fast food restaurant and there's like a 'gochujang' flavor of chicken wings and it's just natural. It's just like kind of completely accepted into mainstream and that's just amazing to me."

Seeing the rise of K-pop's popularity, Kang says she wanted the film to reflect that connection with fans, not tied to just one idol group.

"We opened up kind of a reference board to our entire crew. And by the time that we got into designing these characters and figuring them out, literally everybody was on there. We took elements of this idol or this group or and so it is really a mix. When they see Huntrix, they think I'm a fan of this group. And so for me Huntrix is this group. I just wanted to make a film for every K-pop fan to enjoy in their own way."

The movie took around seven years to make, leaving a question: how did she manage to stay relevant and trendy?

"It's really about the story and really staying true to what the fans are, what the audience is going to connect with and that's really the emotional story of the characters and the message of the film. And I think from the very beginning that was really set. That was our kind of North Star. It was all a culmination of everybody's favorite things."

She even shared her favorite scene that much effort was put into.

"All of the scenes are like my children and I can't really say that any of them were easy. One of the scenes that I'm most proud of is the very opening scene where we see the old time original hunters and we see Korean culture from like you know the Joseon era to modern day. It's such a short moment but for me being someone who's Korean it was just such an emotional feeling to like see our tradition just on screen."

With global fans still excited about the movie, Kang gave us a sneak peek of a potential sequel.

"After spending so many years making this film there's a lot of ideas that didn't make it in. So there's different types of demons that we didn't get to feature so I would love to feature new demons you know that are different visually and different types of music. And I think there's a lot of back stories that we can flesh out and give the fans a little bit you know more information."

"Can you give us a message for all the Rumis watching, who are struggling to find their dreams and pursue the career they want?"

"Don't be scared. You know stay true to yourself and if you feel scared you're probably doing something right because it means that it hasn't been done and it means that it's coming from somewhere deep inside of you. And I think once you create any work of art or you know put anything out there that's a part of yourself that's what people want to see that's what people connect to the most."

At the end of the day, Kang stressed the film carries one true message: "Don't be scared of who you are," echoing the lyrics of KPop Demon Hunters' theme song, Golden 'I'm done hiding, now I'm shining like I'm born to be.'

Park Kun-woo, Arirang News.

#MaggieKang #KPopDemonHunters #KPop #메기강 #케이팝데몬헌터스 #케데헌 #Arirang_News #아리랑뉴스

📣 Facebook :   / arirangtvnews  
📣 Twitter :   / arirangtvnews  
📣 Homepage : https://v2.arirang.com/

2025-08-22, 10:00 (KST)