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Netflix confirmed on Thursday that a sequel to KPop Demon Hunters, the streaming platform’s most watched film of all time, is officially in development.
The new installment will extend Netflix’s creative collaboration with co-directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, and marks the first project under their new exclusive multi-year writing and directing deal for animation.
“I feel immense pride as a Korean filmmaker that the audience wants more from this Korean story and our Korean characters,” Kang, who grew up in Toronto, said in the announcement. “There’s so much more to this world we have built and I’m excited to show you. This is only the beginning.”
Animated by Sony Pictures Animation, the original musical film follows K-pop girl trio Huntrix — Rumi, Mira and Zoey — as they balance their superstardom with secret lives as demon hunters. Lead vocalists EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami propelled the movie’s breakout anthem Golden to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
KPop Demon Hunters writer and co-director Maggie Kang talks with Q guest host Gill Deacon about creating relatable, goofy female characters and details the animation process, including how acting is recorded.
The film became a critical and awards-season powerhouse, earning best animated feature and best song at the 31st Critics Choice Awards, as well as best animated motion picture and best original song at the 83rd Golden Globes. It has two Oscar nominations — for best animated feature and best original song.
Golden also won a Grammy for best song written for visual media — the first Grammy ever awarded to a K-Pop song.
Kpop Demon Hunters was the hit movie of the summer, and its songs are still topping the charts this fall. ’Golden’ by Huntr/x, one of the bands in the movie, has held the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for five straight weeks — a new record for an animated group. The song was co-written by EJAE, the voice of Huntr/x’s lead vocalist, Rumi. She told CBC’s Gloria Macarenko she came up with the song on the way to the dentist.
In January 2026, Netflix announced the movie had shattered platform records, drawing 482 million views over a six-month period, along with 32 million views for its lyric videos. Its soundtrack continues to trend globally.
Appelhans, speaking to Reuters in January, stressed that a sequel would need a clear creative direction from the beginning.
“You have to know where you’re headed because otherwise you will be lost immediately,” he said. “So, we’ll just have to do that again and make something that we love and that means something to us. And then I think if you do that well, it works and other people connect to it.”
