Netflix Wants To Make A Live-Action KPop Demon Hunters Movie — Here's Why That's A Bad Idea

Netflix is trying to join the financially risky (but at times very successful) trend of turning beloved animated films into creatively bankrupt and visually insulting live-action movies. As The Wrap reported back in July, Netflix is seeing the gargantuan, unprecedented success of the animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" and planning to capitalize on what could have been Sony's biggest film of the year. According to the report, Netflix is referring to the movie, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans about a K-Pop girl group who lead double lives as demon hunters, as its "Frozen." Basically, Netflix sees as much value in this as Disney did in the highest-grossing film of 2013, which has since become a theme park ride and a movie franchise with TV spin-offs and more.

Among the "KPop Demon Hunters" projects Netflix is considering to produce are "a stage musical, live-action remake, series, and, of course, a pair of sequels to round out a full-on 'KPop Demon Hunters' film trilogy." It's worth noting that, while Netflix reps told The Wrap a few weeks ago they were not currently discussing a live-action remake, The Wall Street Journal recently released their own reporting that states Netflix's film chief, Dan Lin, is "considering a live-action version further in the future."

Sure, there is still a very long way to go before we see any more "KPop Demon Hunters" in any form, as the streamer has to sort out a deal with Sony first before moving forward with anything. Still, the live-action remake is a possibility, and that would be a terrible idea.

A live-action "KPop Demon Hunters" makes no sense, either creatively or financially. For one, the movie is already officially Netflix's most-watched movie of all time, surpassing "Red Notice." This means an animated movie with a budget of approximately $100 million and no huge A-list stars (at least by Hollywood standards) has been watched more times than the live-action movie with at least twice the budget featuring both Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in its cast. "KPop Demon Hunters" has already proved the fallacy of the live-action remake trend, showing that an original animated movie can outperform any live-action movie (and even save lives). Surprisingly, a sing-a-long version of the film topped the box office this past weekend despite only playing for two days and appearing in a limited number of theaters (AMC Theatres, the biggest chain in the world, refused to show it). Simply put, Hollywood was not ready for "KPop Demon Hunters," and it has no idea what to do with it.

To try and Disney-fy the success of this movie with a live-action remake would be to severely misunderstand what made this movie work in the first place. A live-action remake would almost certainly require an A-list cast, a bigger budget, and a longer runtime for Netflix to justify it. This is despite the fact that the movie worked in no small part because it being animated allowed the film to avoid stunt casting and prioritize representation over known talent. The entire cast is of Korean descent, while having different actors to do the speaking and singing voices allowed "KPop Demon Hunters" to avoid having to compromise a great singing voice for the sake of a known name.

Then there's the film's visual style, which is a significant reason for the film's appeal. The movie, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, is very clearly a part of the recent trend of movies coming out in the wake of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" that experiment with textures in 3D animation. In the case of "Demon Hunters," the movie does something different in that it keeps the textures in 3D rather than superimpose 2D expressions over 3D models. This adds to the film's anime-inspired look, which would simply not be possible to replicate in live-action. The closest would be something akin to Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," but even then, you'd be losing way more than you gain, visually. Simply put, "KPop Demon Hunters" is a hit because of what it is. Don't try to change that, Netflix.