K-Pop: Demon Hunters – Picture: Sony Pictures Animation
First announced in March 2021, a new animated movie about female K-Pop stars who in between gigs go about slaying evil spirits was announced to be in development at Sony Pictures Animation. Now a year later, new filings seem to suggest Netflix may be the distributor of the movie.
Variety first unveiled the project and reported that directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans were on board to direct. Kang is best known for her work on The Lego Ninjago Movie while Applehans was involved as writer and direct on Netflix’s 2021 release of Wish Dragon last year (which is reportedly getting a sequel although it’s unclear whether that will be at Netflix).
Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan are writers on the animation project while Aron Warner (Shrek) and Scott Berri are producers.
Training for the big debut. K-Pop: Demon Hunters is currently in development at Sony Animation.
This film follows a world-renowned K-Pop girl group as they balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as badass demon hunters. pic.twitter.com/sFScsOqMN5
— Sony Pictures Animation (@SonyAnimation) March 8, 2021
Since that initial announcement things have been quietly worked on behind the scenes. As Variety notes, a release schedule had not been announced.
That’s where we come onto Netflix. Two filings registered recently tie the movie to Netflix. Multiple documents suggest that Netflix is taking over the release of the movie. In recent months, Netflix also made filings with similar wording for Nimona which was officially unveiled yesterday.
Sony Pictures Animation did not respond to a request for comment.
Of course, even if the movie did get a theatrical run it would’ve appeared on Netflix albeit it only for a limited time given Sony and Netflix have an overall first-window deal for all Sony movies (both live-action and animation) in the US in 2022.
The only two Sony Animation movies confirmed for a theatrical release at the time of publishing are the next two Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse entries which are due to release in October 2022 and 2023.
The move to Netflix wouldn’t be completely out of the ordinary.
In 2021, Netflix partnered with Sony Animation on three projects to help bolster its slate of movies that had been impacted by COVID-19 delays. The Wish Dragon, Vivo, and The Mitchells vs The Machines were all sold to Netflix. The latter was a big success for Netflix even netting it an Oscar nomination.
We’ll keep you posted on this if and when hear more.