KPop Demon Hunters was always built to be loud, stylish, and a little bit chaotic, but even the cast did not expect their demon-slaying girl group to turn into a full-blown global juggernaut. The animated adventure has shattered viewing records, spun off a chart-topping anthem in “Golden,” and pushed its voice actors into a surreal new level of fame. Now that the numbers are in and the trophies are stacking up, the people who brought these characters to life are finally catching their breath and reacting to just how big this thing has become.
From Zoom calls filled with screaming to award-season disbelief, the cast’s responses trace the arc of a movie that went from quirky concept to cultural touchstone. Their reactions, and the milestones they are reacting to, show how a K-pop powered fantasy about friendship and exorcism managed to dominate streaming, music charts, and even toy aisles.
The moment the cast realized the movie was a phenomenon
The first sign that KPop Demon Hunters was more than a niche animated release came when it started climbing internal rankings and word-of-mouth lists, eventually cementing itself as a breakout on Netflix. As the audience grew, the film’s profile rose high enough that a quick search for KPop Demon Hunters now pulls up a dense trail of accolades, fan edits, and think pieces that would have been unthinkable when the cast first signed on. The project’s blend of supernatural action and K-pop performance, anchored in a fictional girl group, gave it a hook that traveled fast across social feeds and fan communities.
The real tipping point came when the film did not just perform well, it rewrote the record books. Netflix confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters became its most popular animated film and then its most-watched movie overall, a feat celebrated in a detailed breakdown of the film’s streaming success. A follow up report framed it bluntly, noting that “It’s official: KPop Demon Hunters rules,” as the movie locked in its status as the platform’s top animated title and continued to dominate viewing charts across 2024, a milestone captured in a second look at the film’s record run.
“We all screamed”: inside the “Golden” trio’s reaction
For the voices behind the fictional group Huntr/x, the news of the film’s record-breaking streak landed in the most modern way possible, on a shared video call. Audrey Nuna has described how she and her bandmates were on Zoom when they were told about the latest milestone and how “we all screamed” as the reality sank in, a reaction captured in coverage of the Golden trio. That unfiltered joy mirrored the energy of their on-screen characters, who spend the movie juggling choreography and demon hunting with the same breathless intensity.
The trio’s musical centerpiece, “Golden,” quickly became its own phenomenon, turning the cast into chart-topping performers as well as voice actors. EJAE, who voices Rumi, later talked about what it meant to see “Golden” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and how she brought her own K-pop background into the recording booth. That crossover, where a fictional group’s single competes with real-world idols, is part of why the cast talks about the experience less like a typical voice gig and more like being thrown into an actual idol career.
From Netflix record-breaker to awards-season staple
Once the viewing numbers exploded, awards bodies started paying attention, and the cast suddenly found themselves in the middle of a serious campaign. KPop Demon Hunters picked up major hardware, including Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the 31st Cri awards, honors that helped cement its status as a critical as well as commercial hit, as detailed in a rundown of the film’s award wins. For a cast that started out voicing a scrappy supernatural girl group, hearing their movie mentioned alongside long-running animation franchises was a whiplash moment.
The recognition did not stop there. When “Golden” was announced as an Oscar nominee for original song, EJAE joined collaborators in a live call where the names were read out, with the clip capturing the stunned smiles and overlapping congratulations as “Golden” from K-pop demon was singled out, a moment preserved in the official nomination reaction. Later, after a Grammy win, members of the team spoke about being “So Proud to Be Korean,” tying their personal pride to the film’s global reach in a segment shared by Demon Hunters Team. For the cast, those moments turned a fun genre mashup into a career-defining project.
How fans and data proved the hype was real
Outside the awards bubble, the clearest sign of impact came from how intensely audiences latched onto the film. Viewers did not just watch KPop Demon Hunters once, they rewatched it, clipped it, and turned it into a constant presence on social platforms. That obsessive engagement showed up in hard numbers when Jan reporting cited Nielsen data stating that KPopDemonHunters was the most-watched movie of 2025, racking up According to Nielsen 20.5 billion viewing minutes. For the cast, seeing their film sit atop a year’s worth of releases, animated and live action alike, was a jarring confirmation that the fandom they felt online was backed by massive real-world viewing.
Streaming records were only part of the story. Commentators noted how Demon Hunters bucked the trend of endless remakes and recycled IP, instead leaning into an original story about a K-pop girl group that fights monsters and lets young viewers, especially girls, feel seen, a point underlined in analysis of how Demon Hunters reshaped expectations for animated hits. Another breakdown of its performance framed the movie as Netflix’s most-watched film and highlighted how it broke internal records for viewing hours, reinforcing that this was not a niche cult favorite but a mainstream juggernaut, as detailed in coverage of how it breaks records. The cast’s social feeds, flooded with fan art and multilingual comments, became a daily reminder of just how far the story had traveled.
Life after “Golden”: music, merch, and cultural ripple effects
As the movie’s audience grew, the world around it expanded too, turning the cast into the faces of a mini media universe. KPop Demon Hunters unleashed what one executive described as a global fan frenzy, with dancing, singing, and more screaming than anyone was emotionally prepared for, a reaction that helped justify a wave of toys, dolls, and games through co-master deals with Mattel and Hasbro, as outlined in coverage of the Demon Hunters merchandise push. For the voice actors, seeing their animated alter egos turned into physical dolls and board games was another surreal milestone, proof that their characters had joined the small club of animated icons kids want to collect.
The music side kept evolving too. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, the voices behind Huntr/x, took “Golden” out of the studio and onto late-night television, performing the hit single live in full for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, an appearance that showcased EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami as a real-world trio. By then, “Golden” had topped charts in over 20 countries, and the cast were fielding questions more typical of touring idols than voice actors. At the same time, EJAE was still talking shop about the craft, revealing that the hardest song to record as Rumi was not actually “Golden,” a detail she shared in an interview that dug into the vocal demands of EJAE’s soundtrack work.
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