KPop Demon Hunters Stars Recall Dull First Introductions to the Characters

KPop Demon Hunters is a bona fide phenomenon. Since the Sony Animation film hit Netflix on June 20 of last year, it has broken streaming records, moved tickets at theaters, sold toys and records, and garnered awards recognition. More importantly, the film and its themes of acceptance have resonated with viewers from all sorts of walks of life.

But to those voice actors who brought Huntrix’s songs to life, the initial idea wasn’t that exciting. “The only information I got pertaining to the movie was very generic,” remembered singer and rapper Rei Ami, who provides the singing voice of Zoey. Regarding the trio in Huntrix, she told Variety that the casting notice just said, “KPop girl group, also demon slayers by night, powerful music, and they’re badass and cute.” For Zoey in particular, it read, “the only description I got was that this person needs to be able to sing in Korean and English, but they need to be able to rap extremely fast.” Yet, despite that bland description, Rei and her co-stars soon discovered something special.

Based on that description, it’s not hard to imagine the type of movie that Rei Ami and her co-stars thought they were getting. KPop Demon Hunters follows the titular musical trio, consisting of not just rapper Zoey (her speaking voice provided by Ji-young Yoo in the English dub), but also dancer Mira (speaking voice by May Hong and singing voice by Audrey Nuna) and frontwoman Rumi (spoken lines by Arden Cho and singing by Ejae).

When not selling out stadiums, the three women battle demons. However, Rumi must hide the fact that she too is part demon, a fact made harder to conceal by the arrival of a human-turned-demon named Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop in spoken dialogue, singing by Andrew Choi) who leads a male act called the Saja Boys.

The film’s hit songs, especially “Golden” may be misconstrued as a generic “believe in yourself” anthem, the same sort of themes peddled by kids movies for the past several decades—the same sort of themes that could easily be delivered by characters who are, in the blank description, “badass and cute.”

But to her credit, Rei and her co-stars pushed further and found something richer and stuck with it. “I don’t know what this movie is going to do, but it’s everything I love in terms of animation. It’s a Netflix film. It’s music, and it’s based in Korean culture. It’s everything that I am,” she told herself. And even though she drew the line at one particular high note in the hit “Golden”—”I told my manager, Aaron Tropf, ‘Tell them Rei cannot hit this note. She does not want to hit this note'”—she put her strength into the part.

And now, Rei recognizes that the dare was with it, because the performers are experiencing validation. “It’s long overdue,” she declared. “We worked our asses off. We’ve had the door shut in our faces. We were told we were too little, too much.” And all that from a cast description for KPop Demon Hunters that was too little, but so much.

KPop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.