'KPop Demon Hunters' Wins Best Animated Motion Picture at the Golden Globes

19 hours ago 2

Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

Fresh off of taking down the competition to win Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice Awards, KPop Demon Hunters is now officially golden. Netflix's global smash-hit musical adventure from Sony Pictures Animation has won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture in the animation category, beating out a diverse crop of acclaimed titles this year, including Arco, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Infinity Castle, Elio, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, and Disney's billion-dollar hit, Zootopia 2. The win now has HUNTR/X looking like the clear favorite to add an Oscar to their collection later this year despite the stiff competition. It would be a fitting end for the film that became the surprise hit of last summer and had everyone singing along to the fictional K-pop group's biggest hits.

KPop Demon Hunters' run of awards success is the result of a winding journey that started back in 2018, when co-director and co-writer Maggie Kang first pitched the idea at Sony. Born out of her love for K-pop and a desire to represent her Korean heritage through animation, the project would blossom as a co-production under an agreement between Sony and Netflix, becoming a personal love letter with some real K-pop firepower behind it. Upon its release in June, it spread like wildfire, quickly becoming the streaming giant's most-watched film of all time with over 325 million viewers, nearly 100 million more than the second-place Red Notice. Its soundtrack, crafted by a massive collection of real K-pop talent and music producers, similarly experienced unprecedented success, going platinum and becoming the first soundtrack ever to land four songs in the Billboard Hot 100, with "Golden" — which also took home the award for Best Original Song — rising to #1 in a first for a girl group since Destiny's Child.

At the center of it all is the fictional HUNTR/X, a trio of idols moonlighting as demon hunters consisting of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, who are voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-young Yoo. Their singing voices, meanwhile, are provided by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, who, thanks to their work on the soundtrack, are now Grammy nominees. The film sees their battle against the creatures of the night take a turn when a new group of demons disguised as the latest K-pop sensation, the Saja Boys, arrives to steal their fans and weaken the barrier between the human and demon world. Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Lee Byung-hun also lent their voices to the stacked cast. Joining Kang in writing and directing was Chris Appelhans, with Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan also helping pen the script.

'KPop Demon Hunters' Won't Be Back for More for a While

While all the success and lingering threads from the world of KPop Demon Hunters made a sequel a no-brainer for Netflix and Sony, HUNTR/X's next release won't be for a while. The follow-up isn't planned to be released until 2029, though it will reunite most of the team who helped make the original a globe-conquering, chart-topping success. The brand has only continued to expand, though, with HUNTR/X being added to the battle royale game Fortnite, and the film getting its own Dungeons & Dragons game book kickstarter. Top listeners of the fictional group on Spotify were also treated to a special animation thanking fans for the global success.

Each of the singers behind HUNTR/X has expressed their hopes for what the next film could explore, telling Collider's Aidan Kelley that they want to see more Korean tradition, more cities for the girls to travel to, and maybe an origin story if Kang and the team are up for a prequel. In the meantime, the Golden Globe-winning KPop Demon Hunters is available to stream right now on Netflix. Stay tuned here at Collider for more updates from the 83rd Golden Globes as the ceremony continues.