Animated phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters is getting a Criterion Collection release alongside Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. Among a collection of films that includes the work of Pasolini, Kurosawa and Jane Campion, we can now add KPop Demon Hunters. The hit Netflix movie – nominated for an Oscar that it will more than likely win – ... KPop Demon Hunters getting Criterion disc release
Animated phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters is getting a Criterion Collection release alongside Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
Among a collection of films that includes the work of Pasolini, Kurosawa and Jane Campion, we can now add KPop Demon Hunters. The hit Netflix movie – nominated for an Oscar that it will more than likely win – is set to be added to the Criterion Collection of fancy disc releases.
KPop is among a number of acclaimed 2025 films set to join Criterion’s library over the coming months; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (also from Netflix), Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent are some of the others listed by Variety.
Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, KPop released in June 2025 with little expectation weighing down on it. The animated fantasy musical, about a girl band with secret monster-slaying double lives, was produced by Sony but went straight to Netflix under a pre-arranged deal.
Within weeks of its appearance on the platform, KPop started breaking Netflix’s own viewership records, while tracks from the film – Golden, the infuriatingly catchy Soda Pop – were hits in their own right. (The soundtrack as a whole debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 charts.)
It was only after KPop caught fire with the public that a brief run in cinemas was arranged, with sold-out singalong screenings hurriedly advertised last August. That run in turn ensured KPop’s eligibility for a Best Animated Picture Oscar.
That’s quite a journey for a film that was made largely under the radar; Kang originally came up with the concept in 2018, and production began three years later. Kang and Appelhans’ delightful interview with Corridor Crew (see below) gives an insight into the amount of work and care that went into their movie, not to mention affection for Korean music and culture.
Aside from a much-loved film getting a physical release people can actually own, this is the other upside to KPop being added to the Criterion Collection: its discs reliably come with some terrific extras, meaning fans will get a more detailed insight into how an animated phenomenon came to life.
More on the release as we get it.
