The people who worked on KPop Demon Hunters at Vancouver's Sony Pictures Imageworks knew they were helping create something great. They had no idea it was going to be such a gargantuan hit.
"We thought it was an absolutely beautiful, adorable, funny film, and it was just so perfectly crafted. But I don't think anybody knew what it would turn into," said SPI president Michelle Grady about Netflix's Academy Award-winning (Best Animated Film and Best Original Song) KPop Demon Hunters. "I don't know if anyone sees those things coming, but we're just incredibly happy that it has. It's so important for the team. We squirrel away for years on these films, and for the artists especially and the production folks, to have their work seen and celebrated all around the world is just mind blowing."
KPop Demon Hunters began streaming on Netflix on June 20, 2025, and by the end of that year it was the most-watched original title in Netflix history with over 500 million views. Vancouver's Sony Picture Imageworks artists did the majority of the work on the animated film that would go on to win Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (Golden) at the 2026 Academy Awards.
Some 500 Vancouver creatives worked for two years on KPop Demon Hunters, the animated musical fantasy film that follows international pop stars Mira, Rumi and Zoey, who live secret double lives protecting fans from soul-eating demons.
Co-directed and co-written by Maggie Kang, who grew up in Toronto, and Chris Appelhans, KPop Demon Hunters began streaming on Netflix on June 20, 2025. By the end of that year, it was the most-watched original title in Netflix history, with more than 500 million views. A sing-along version of the film had limited theatrical releases and topped the box office. Four songs from the soundtrack simultaneously made the Top-10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"We knew it was good. We didn't know it was gonna go insane," said Jacky Priddle, an SGI senior producer on KPop Demon Hunters, adding that the film was unique in style and form. "It's really, really incredible. And that's just the fact that we kind of made it in Vancouver. I don't feel like many people know that, because, you know, it goes out, and the people, rightly, who get the main credit are the directors; it was their idea. It was their vision … We have like 100 animators who made those characters come to life, and they all did it in Vancouver, which I feel like we should really be celebrating."
When it comes to the sequel, Priddle says she knows "absolutely nothing," except that it is being written now.
Vancouver also has ties to the Spider-Verse films, with Sony Pictures Imageworks contributing to the animation of those chart-topping projects. The team's work on both franchises highlights the city's growing prominence in the animation industry.
