As of August 2025, KPop Demon Hunters has 236 million views, making it Netflix’s most-watched film. For those of you who haven’t watched it yet or already deduced the plot from the movie’s title, the tl;dr is that the movie focuses on a KPop girl group named HUNTR/X. Its members, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, are also secret demon hunters who keep the demons at bay by slaying them through song. Buffy fans, this movie is for you.

My family and I finally watched KPop Demon Hunters last weekend, and I was surprised that I recognized some of its nine original songs from the radio. I don’t listen to a ton of radio, which means these songs have gotten a lot of play for me to catch them. It made me wonder if the movie was using real-life musical acts. I’m not the only person who was curious about this. Luckily, People has set the record straight.

Although the band has created some of summer’s biggest hits, HUNTR/X is a fictional group made for KPop Demon Hunters.

There are several people behind HUNTR/X, given that Rumi, Mira and Zoey each have both a voice actor and a singer. Their characters are voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo, respectively, but real-life singers perform on behalf of the characters during musical scenes. EJAE, who sings for the group’s lead Rumi, has written for groups like TWICE, Aespa, Le Sserafim and Red Velvet, per Rolling Stone. She co-wrote, sang and did background vocals/arrangements on several of the movie’s songs, per her Instagram.

In August 2025, she shared an Instagram carousel of images showing the success of HUNTR/X’s music, including “Golden” being at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, writing that her 11-year-old self “would be so happy.”

“My dream ever since I gave up being a kpop idol and chose to be a songwriter was to write a top hot 100 song in the US.. and getting #1 felt impossible,” she wrote. “thank you to everyone who made that possible. Thank you to everyone whos been showering so much love and support for the music and movie.”

Audrey Nuna, who is known for her popular singles “damn Right” and “Comic Sans,” which features Jack Harlow, sings for Mira. In August 2025, Nuna opened up to Variety about the film’s success, saying, “I really did have a feeling that this project was going to do very well.”

“I didn’t know that it was just going to completely obliterate its own niche in the sense of just becoming so globally received,” she added.

REI AMI, who performs for Zoey, is a singer, songwriter and rapper who rose to fame following her collaboration with Sub Urban on “Freak,” released in 2020.

Following the film’s release, she posted an Instagram photo of HUNTR/X with on-screen text announcing that the movie had become the most popular Netflix film of all time, captioned, “Thank you omg i can’t stop crying. … Honored to be a part of this. Wow. Thank you.”

[From People]

So there were different actresses playing the characters and their singing voices. There were different actors and singers playing the Saja Boys roles, too. Obviously, this is not a new thing in film history (Marni Nixon would like a word), but I was hoping that this was a super creative Spice World-type situation! Still, everyone involved did such a great job that you can’t even tell that it’s two different people in each role. They deserve all the recognition they’re getting, and I sheepishly hope that we get a live performance at the 2026 Oscars. I mean, can you imagine how much the Internet would break if we got a HUNTR/X song and another Wicked performance on the same night? ”They’re goin’ up, up, up…”

KPop Demon Hunters totally lives up to the hype. The story is timely yet classic, the characters are great, and the music is *insert fire emoji*. My only note for parents would be that while there’s no gratuitous language or sex, the subject matter may go over the heads of kids who are under ages five or six. But the music is so catchy! In fact, Mr. Rosie has since added the soundtrack to the rotation, although all four of us disagree as to which songs are our favorites. My favorite is “Golden” or “What It Sounds Like,” while my husband’s is “Free.” The kids like “Soda Pop” and “How It’s Done.”