Maggie Kang is a director at Sony Pictures Animation, currently helming the feature film KPop Demon Hunters, which originated from her idea, and is set to release globally on Netflix in 2025. Kang began her career at DreamWorks Animation as a story artist on various projects including the Puss In Boots franchise and The Croods: A New Age, as well as Rise of the Guardians, Kung-Fu Panda 3, Trolls, Shrek Forever After, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Over the Hedge.Prior to joining Sony Animation, Kang contributed her talents as a story artist at Illumination Entertainment on Minions: The Rise of Gru, and Warner Animation Group, where she was Head of Story on The LEGO Ninjago Movie.Born in Seoul, Korea, Kang grew up in Toronto, Canada and attended Sheridan College where she studied classical animation.

I have the opportunity to interview Maggie, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Maggie Kang. I am the director, writer, and creator of the recently-released Sony Pictures Animation/Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters.

As an animation director, how did you get into the medium of animation? How would you describe your creative journey into the field?

Growing up, I developed a love of film and storytelling at a young age. This is thanks to my dad who has endless love for world cinema. For as long as I could remember he was a collector of film (I think he has a collection of 50K+ titles, first on VHS, now on DVD/Blu-ray) and he has watched 2-3 titles every week for the last 35 years and many times I would sit there and just watch with him. So, you could say I grew up around stories my whole life watching films by incredible filmmakers like Kurosawa, Kieslowski, Chaplin, Wong Kar Wai, Kim Ki Duk, Kiarostami, Scorsese, Kubrick, and many more from an early age. He also loved Hollywood movies so I grew up watching blockbusters like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Goonies, as well as Disney movies.

I wrote a lot of short stories in grade school and always drew illustrations to accompany them. Seeing my talent and passion for drawing, my dad bought me a Disney book and that was the first time I learned that animation was a career I could pursue, making these kinds of movies.

I was fortunate to grow up in Toronto, Canada which was very close to Oakville where one of the most famous animation schools existed, Sheridan College. This is where I learned Classical Animation and furthered my skills in art. I would say I’ve had a very straight forward career path. Sheridan has an industry day for the graduating class where studios from Toronto, Canada, and sometimes USA come to recruit students. Luckily, the year I graduated, three studios came – DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, and Blue Sky. I was fortunate to have interviews with all three. I didn’t think I would get a job right away but two months later DWA informed me they were doing a story trainee program and gave me a test to apply. So I applied, hopes high, and a week later I was invited to come join the program. That’s how my career got started. 

I stayed at DWA for 7.5 years, moved on to Blue Sky for a year (I wanted to always live in NY once in my life), returned to DWA for about 3 years, got offered a Head of Story position at Warner Animation on The Lego Ninjago Movie. After being Head of Story, I felt ready to pitch my own things and direct. My partner Rad Sechrist and I developed some shows and pitched them around. KPop is one we thought of together (the original one line concept) and it was bought a week after we pitched it over lunch. That was 7 years ago. 

What can you tell us about your latest film, KPop Demon Hunters? What was the inspiration for this project?

I’ve always wanted to see an animated film set in Korean culture. As a Korean person who was born in Korea but grew up in North America, it’s been surreal but also incredible to see our culture just become… so cool? It’s cheesy but I think it’s true. Growing up everyone knew Chinese and Japanese culture well but Koreans were not even on the map. Now that we are, I feel so much pride and I just wanted to express this pride through a film that celebrated our culture, all aspects of it. So my biggest inspiration for this film is my culture. 

KPop is obviously a big inspiration for the film. Were there any specific singers or groups that influenced the creative team during its production?

Not really. I’ve been getting this question a lot and I know everyone wants me to point to one or two specific names so the fans can celebrate LOL (and yes, I have named a few), but the truth is, it was everyone. Every K-Pop group, every idol was an inspiration at one point. We had these huge Miro boards (digital bulletin boards) where we would post references for just about everything we needed reference for in the movie. If you went to the group/idol board literally all groups were in there, even 1st, 2nd gen groups. Because the inspiration came from the entire pre-production team, there were a lot of faces/names.

Pop culture is also a big inspiration behind the film, as seen by the K-drama touches, anime references, and other cartoon touches. Can you name any influences behind the film you would like to mention?

Again, it’s hard to be specific. I honestly think everything you see in the film is just from the list of things I/(my fellow director) Chris Appelhans/the team loves. My humor and my taste in animation has been defined by decades of watching animation and also live action films and KDrama since I was 8 years old. I would say that my biggest comedic influences are The Simpsons, Looney Tunes, and Charlie Chaplin. For the specific comedic moments like “corn eyes” we leaned into different animation aesthetics (chibi style) because it just helped accentuate the comedy. Wherever you see style changes happen, visually or tonally, it’s because it helped the moment or story point. Every decision was made in service of the story.

In addition to music, KPop Demon Hunters is inspired by Korean mythology as seen by the demon world and its characters. What was it like integrating this element into the story and weaving it into a contemporary setting, as well as the research process?

Since the original concept was around demons and demon hunters the idea to feature them was there from the beginning. I always knew I wanted to feature the Jeoseung Saja (Grim reaper) in the movie as the villains but that idea became even more exciting once K-Pop was added in and they could also be idols. We did some research for what they could look like, design-wise, but a lot of this mythology is familiar to me so it was really to make sure what I was thinking was correct, I guess? For the demons, like the dokkaebi (the plane fight demons) and the water demons, it was more difficult to find existing imagery so we designed them based on how these characters would be used in the story and how they moved. The dokkaebi are inspired a lot by traditional Korean masks and motifs you would find on buildings/temples, the water demons we wanted to have flowy long hair, webbed feet and hands because we knew we wanted them to move in a certain way in animation and the design had to fit that.

What are some of your favorite elements of the animation process? What do you consider some of the most challenging?

I come from a storyboarding background and character acting is something I have always loved to show in my boards. I love Charlie Chaplin films because he is able to convey so much emotion through purely acting alone, both broad and subtle, with zero dialogue. It’s incredible and so inspiring. I recommend all his films to anyone who wants to get into animation.

I acted out a lot of the movie in animation dailies. They literally put a camera on my face so the animators can look at my face and acting for reference! It was fun but also stressful – you’re really putting yourself out there for everyone to see and that could be terrifying.

Not only does KPop Demon Hunters feature an amazing soundtrack, gorgeous animation, and incredible character designs (it’s safe to say the film might have generated some bisexual panic, lol), it also discusses some relevant themes like shame, isolation, and self-acceptance. What does it mean to you as a creator putting those elements into the show?

As an animation director I want to make animated films for a broader audience. I think almost every artist in the industry is frustrated that we are put in the kiddie corner of Hollywood. Animation is for everyone. Sometimes it’s actually for an older audience but it happens to be safe for kids to watch. So Chris and I approached KPop in this way – making a movie with deep, “adult” themes that can resonate with an older audience but accessible/enjoyable for a younger audience. We wanted to tackle hard subjects like shame and the voices in your head and honestly we thought it would be too adult for some kids but even in our first public screenings, we saw young girls 8/9 years old who totally got this and they talked about how it related to them and their relationship with their friends. It was incredible. As an industry, we really should not underestimate our young viewers. They are so insightful and they want deeper stories. They don’t want to be treated like children. 

Can you give us any trivia (that hasn’t already been given) about the characters from KPop Demon Hunters?

I’ve been asked why we went with the name “Jinu” because it’s a very common name, like “John” in Korea. It’s kind of a nod to a group called JinuSean. My dad’s name is Sean and not a lot of Korean men are named that, and with that spelling, so when I saw that Sean of JinuSean spelled his name the same as my dad I was so happy. It’s a small thing but that’s why!

What advice might you have to give for any aspiring creatives out there?

Be brave. If you’re working on something and you are scared to show it, you’re probably doing something right. At times it was terrifying for me to make this film. I thought about what people would think, what if people wouldn’t like it, what if no one would think corn eyes are funny… but you can’t make something great if you are working in fear. You have to make something YOU like. If you don’t make it from a place of pride/love, no one will like it. It’s hard and terrifying but you have to be brave and take big swings.

Finally, what media would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

So, I don’t read a lot. That’s been embarrassing to admit but it’s true and in line with the theme of our movie I have decided to not feel shame about that! LOL But there is a book I have read recently that I just adore. It’s by my dear friend Justinian Huang who was actually my creative executive on KPop at Sony until he got this book published and now he’s a full time writer. His debut novel called The Emperor and the Endless Palace is an incredible gay Asian romantasy about an ill-fated love that spans centuries. I’ll just leave it at that because I don’t want to spoil anything, but after K-Pop, if you are craving some (spicy) romance, this is a good one.