KPop Demon Hunters, the surprise hit animated movie from Netflix about a KPop singing group who slay demons in their spare time, has just entered the real world in the most surprising way.
On the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, host Bad Bunny took center stage in a sketch about a man who is obsessed with the aforementioned movie, much like my kids are. During the sketch, Bunny makes many references to Huntr/x, the fictional Kpop group in the movie.
At one point, Bunny drifts away from the conversation to dream about Huntr/x, giving us our first glimpse of what a real-life Huntr/x might look like. The group sings the hit “Golden” from the movie, but that was just a tease..
As the sketch neared its end, regular player Bowen Yang appeared as the movie’s villain, Jinu, to belt out the evil boy band Saja Boy’s hit “Soda Pop.” That brought out the real-life singing voices of Huntr/x (Audrey Nuna, who plays Mira, EJAE, who voices Rumi, and Rei Ami, who rounds out the trio as Zoey) to sing their hit song to defeat him. This marks the first live performance and appearance of the trio, and yes, they sound great!
You can watch the full sketch here:
KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack Continues To Dominate The Charts
On September 20th, the KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack landed at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, beating out Sabrina Carpenter, Morgan Wallen, and Justin Bieber. The film is also in its 15th consecutive week at the number one spot on the Netflix top ten, making it the longest-running title ever to top the English-language films chart.
According to Variety, on the strength of Golden, the KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack has also accumulated over 117 million streams, and the Soundtrack featuring the singing voices of Audrey Nuna (Mira), EJAE (Rumi), and Rei Ami (Zoey) has earned over 100,000 equivalent album units.
There’s More Huntr/x On the Horizon
While Huntr/x may have snuck in a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, their “Official” live debut comes on October 7th, when the trio sings Golden live on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
At a press conference during rehearsals for the show, EJAE, the singing voice of Rumi, made clear that singing Golden live with Nuna and Ami has brought them closer as friends and artists.
“Well, it’s such a hard song, but I can sing it with these girls by my side. I’m not kidding. We sound so fantastic. But no pressure.”
Writer and Co-Director Maggie Kang said that she knew Golden was going to be a hit as soon as she heard it.
“I just heard the few notes in the beginning, and then I just had tears. I knew it was it. I was like, this is it. It was just so magical right from the beginning. I was like, oh my gosh, we finally got it. Then I started crying. And then I cried more because I was like, it’s getting better and better.”
EJAE also announced a surprise single, “In Another World,” due out on October 24th. Netflix and its production partner, Sony Pictures Animation, are also in talks on a potential sequel to the juggernaut animated hit.
