Kpop Demon Hunters
Netflix
This past week, Netflix announced something that should seem like a slam-dunk, a global concert tour for KPop Demon Hunters, its most popular film ever and cultural phenomenon that’s about…musical performances and concert tours. However, there are a lot of questions about this show that Netflix hasn’t addressed yet, and some of them suggest it won’t be as cool as it otherwise could be.
The biggest potential red flag here is that this does not appear to involve the actual, real-life singers of KPop Demon Hunters’ HUNTR/X as the ones going on tour, which would be EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, where all three of them conveniently look very similar to the characters they play in the movie. We have seen those three perform HUNTR/X hit Golden across countless late-night and award shows, and of course, it won Best Original Song at the Oscars, where they also performed it.
Why would they not be involved here? I mean, we don’t know their schedules, but you would imagine they might drop everything to do a tour like this, given how popular it will be and how much Netflix might pay them for doing so. And if they are involved, why wouldn’t Netflix announce that alongside the concert? Plus, there’s the fact that for still-unexplained reasons, they essentially never sing any other songs from that movie besides Golden, despite the others being popular and charting. Why?
We know that Netflix’s partner on this tour, AEG Presents, is deeply involved in the KPop space, and has worked on concerts with groups like Blackpink, BTS, LE SSERAFIM and more. HUNTR/X was inspired by some of the groups, particularly Blackpink, and the real-life Kpop group TWICE sang on the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. Still, it would be odd for an existing KPop group to put on a show for a film that already has its own performers.
One potential option is something like a “virtual concert,” a type of event that is sometimes used so animated performers can be “live” through projections of the characters. The technology is still evolving, but if there’s ever a moment to try to squeeze the most out of it, it would be for a high-profile KPop Demon Hunters tour. AEG does have some experience in this space, so this could be the most likely option. Netflix again, however, is not revealing anything about the format of the show.
All of this leads into a second major question. How exactly do you have a concert tour with so few songs? There is:
- Golden – HUNTR/X
- How It’s Done – HUNTR/X
- Takedown – HUNTR/X
- What it Sounds Like – HUNTR/X
- Free – Rumi and Jinu
- Soda Pop – Saja Boys
- Your Idol – Saja Boys
So that’s literally just four songs from HUNTR/X, two from Saja Boys and one crossover. Putting all of those together, that’s 37 minutes of music. So what exactly is a show like this going to be? Will it even have Saja Boys singers? Is this supposed to be some sort of performance that echoes non-singing moments from the movie like demon fights and accompanying choreography?
It just seems like the content of a show like this should be obvious: the HUNTR/X girls and possibly the Saja Boys, the singers from the movies, tour around singing these songs, perhaps with some added padding in some form to make it a real concert (other KPop bands joining, maybe?). But there are no indications it is that, and just “a live experience that will bring elements of the two-time Oscar-winning film to life in spectacular ways.” What does that mean? I think Netflix needs to be more clear, especially if tickets are going to go on sale soon.
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