‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ Filmmakers On Sequel Prospects & How “Brutal” Casting Process Yielded A Smash Hit

Kpop Demon Hunters producer Michelle Wong said the casting process for the animated smash was “brutal,” but wound up being well worth the effort.

“We had three casting directors and did a search around the world,” she recalled Friday during a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the film at Infinity Festival in Los Angeles. “What was challenging for our movie was that we obviously wanted all of our talent to be Korean. We wanted them to be bi-lingual and we wanted them to sing. And that just doesn’t happen.”

The performances ultimately captured on the film’s soundtrack helped propel the Sony Pictures Animation title to the top of the all-time Netflix movie chart and turn it into a cultural juggernaut. It was past the 11th hour when the three lead roles were cast, Wong and two colleagues recalled during the panel. Final voice recording wrapped early this year ahead of the film’s August premiere.

“People say, ‘Oh, I can sing, I can sing.’ But when you hear our songs, not at that level,” Wong said. “Our songs are a mix of musical theater and pop.” Cast members, she added, “need to be to be able to sing in emotional ways.”

The filmmakers “were also getting pressure from the studios,” Wong said of Sony and Netflix, “who though that we needed name talent. But we do have name talent.”

Rei Ami, Ejae and Audrey Nuna voice the lead roles of Zoey, Rumi and Mira, respectively. While they are on the rise and less globally known before the film’s smash success, the cast also included Ahn Hyo-seop and Lee Byung-hun, who collectively brought decades of experience and followers to the project.

Wong said the three actors were never together during production, recording their parts individually. “The first time they performed together was on Fallon,” Wong said, alluding to the trio singing breakout hit “Golden” on Late Night earlier this week. (They also crashed Saturday Night Live last weekend.)

Joshua Beveridge, Head of Character Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Kpop‘s animation director, reflected on “the moment during production when we thought, ‘Oh, we’re on to something.’” After the recording sessions with the lead talent, members of the audio crew started saying, “‘Rumi is such a Rumi! Mira is such a Mira!’” he said. “And the animation crew would be saying the same thing. … There wasn’t a clear favorite … they’re all stars.”

Jacky Priddle, the film’s co-producer and a VFX producer at Sony Pictures Imageworks, said the last-minute finalizing of the casting wasn’t ideal, but everyone adjusted. “It’s just shifting priorities,” she said. “There are some sequences that were safe, some needed adjusting with choreography or whatever. As the voices came in … sometimes you had to animate without the voices and then replace them. Sometimes, you have to just hold off. Sometimes, you record it afterwards.”

Asked about the outlook for more Kpop installments, Wong took a pause. “This moment has just been surreal and incredible,” she said, adding with a smile, “We are all very tired [laughs]. But we are excited for the next step.”

Beveridge said working on the project exposed the hundreds of animators and other crew members to the vast audience of K-pop. “It’s such a culture,” he said. Mindful of all of the fans, he added, The main objective was “making sure we were not disappointing them [fans]. This audience is much bigger than we ever fathomed.”

Initially, Priddle said, “The brief was, ‘make a K-pop film,’ but we didn’t just want to make a 3D K-pop film. We wanted to do something exciting and interesting.” Thus, the musical concept

Technology enabled the film to make bold choices, particularly during the film’s many song-and-dance numbers. While the panel didn’t dwell too much on tech, one striking behind-the-scenes clip illustrated the choreography process with human dancers and their animated versions moving in sync.

“You can’t predict this stuff at all,” Beveridge said of AI and other tools now at animators’ disposal. “If you put new tech in artists’ hands, you’re going to get surprises.” As a medium, he continued, animation is “in its infancy” with technology. “We’re in the wild, wild West of trying to figure this out. It’s like painters when they find brushes.”