THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON — Episode 2196 — Pictured: (l-r) Musical guests Rei Ami, Ejae, and Audrey Nuna of “KPop Demon Hunters” perform on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 — (Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
There were many ideas thrown out regarding the future of KPop Demon Hunters after its unprecedented success on Netflix. The most obvious was be a sequel movie, or two. Maybe a spin-off show. But one thing that was allegedly being considered was a live-action remake of the first movie.
This idea was largely rejected by fans, and now it’s been rejected by the creators of the movie as well, officially.
KPop Demon Hunters creator Maggie Kang spoke to the BBC about the possibility and says that it just wouldn’t work:
“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.”
Kpop Demon Hunters
Netflix
I suppose you can pick up on that “it wouldn’t work” for her, indicating maybe Netflix would get someone else to make this version, but I doubt it. The entire idea seemed superfluous and like time and energy should be sunk into more actual animated projects.
It did, however, at least seem possible it could work. This was sparked by a series of live-action performances from HUNTR/X, ie, the singers who sang in the movie as the group, which are EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. But it’s not just that the three are real-life performers, it’s also that they look like the core HUNTR/X trio of Rumi, Mira and Zoey. So, doable?
Eh, not really. Added complications here are that these are the singing voices, where three different actresses, Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo voice the three when they’re speaking. Then there’s all the stuntwork, and you can easily understand what Kang is saying about how all this works in animation when it probably wouldn’t in live action. That said, Netflix is well known for live-action adaptations of anime properties that are often thought to be unfilmable, so I wouldn’t rule it out. I would rule it out for now, but let’s revisit in a few years, even if it’s still not a good idea then.
We are still waiting for official updates on KPop Demon Hunters 2, where the last we heard is that the directors, Sony and Netflix are all in discussions. We also have a weird update that apparently a KPop Demon Hunters prequel short film has been rated for release, but we’ve heard nothing about that officially from Netflix at all. But we’ll see what happens next, even if it’s not a live-action adaptation.
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