KPop Demon Hunters Plots a Live World Tour for 2027

The fictional girl group HUNTR/X was never supposed to sell out arenas. They were drawn, not signed. Yet a year after a Netflix cartoon about idol-singers who moonlight as demon slayers crashed into the culture, the made-up band is on the verge of doing something very real: playing to tens of thousands of fans, in city after city, for an audience that has spent twelve months singing every word.

On May 13, during its annual upfront presentation to advertisers, Netflix announced that it is partnering with concert giant AEG Presents to mount a live KPop Demon Hunters global tour. The streamer promised a production that would bring elements of the film to the stage in spectacular fashion, with shows targeted for 2027. It is the clearest sign yet that Netflix sees its biggest movie not as a one-off hit but as a franchise it intends to grow well beyond the screen.

The Plan for a Live World Tour

Details are deliberately thin, and that is part of the rollout. According to The Hollywood Reporter, cities, dates and on-sale information are expected later in 2026, with fans able to join a waitlist for notifications in the meantime. Netflix has not confirmed whether any of the vocalists behind the film will appear, including EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, who voice the singing for HUNTR/X, or the performers behind rival boy band the Saja Boys.

What is clear is the scale of the ambition. The pairing with AEG, one of the largest live-event promoters on the planet, signals a tour aimed at major markets and large venues rather than a modest theatrical pop-up. Industry reports have floated the possibility of stadium-sized shows and a run spanning multiple continents. For Netflix, which has dabbled in live events but never anchored one to its own intellectual property at this magnitude, it is a significant bet that the affection fans feel for these characters will translate into ticket sales.

How a Cartoon Became a Phenomenon

The numbers behind that bet are staggering. Released June 15, 2025, KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix's most-watched movie ever, and by late December it had overtaken the first season of Squid Game to claim the title of the platform's most-watched title of any kind. Netflix's own Tudum charted the climb, and viewership tallies have since pushed well past half a billion views worldwide.

It did not stay confined to the couch, either. A sing-along edition landed in theaters and topped the North American box office over the weekend of August 23, the first Netflix film to lead the domestic box office and the company's widest theatrical release by theater count. The result was a rare modern crossover: a streaming title that also became an event people left the house to share.

A Soundtrack That Rewrote the Record Books

If the film was the spark, the music was the wildfire. The HUNTR/X anthem Golden debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, per Billboard, ruled the chart for eight weeks, making it the longest-leading No. 1 from a soundtrack in more than a decade. The album itself made history as the first soundtrack ever to place four songs in the Hot 100 top 10 at once, a feat unmatched across the chart's 67-year history.

The records kept stacking. Golden became the first Korean pop song led by female vocalists to top the Hot 100, and it surpassed TLC's Waterfalls to rank among the longest-running No. 1 hits by an all-female group of three or more members. For a soundtrack tied to animated characters, the chart dominance was without real precedent, and it gave the eventual tour something most film franchises lack: a catalog of songs audiences already treat as their own.

Two Oscars and a Place in History

The awards season that followed only deepened the story. At the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Feature, with directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and producer Michelle L.M. Wong becoming, as Variety reported, the first Asian women to win in the category. Golden took Best Original Song, the first K-pop track ever to do so, with EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick and members of South Korea's the Black Label becoming the first Koreans to win the songwriting honor.

From the stage, Kang thanked the fans and the Academy and spoke directly to those who, in her words, look like her, framing the night as a marker of representation for the next generation. The film had already swept the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice and Producers Guild awards and collected 10 Annie Awards, but the Oscars gave it the one credential that turns a hit into a landmark.

The Sequel and What Comes Next

The tour is one half of Netflix's expansion strategy. The other is a sequel, with Kang and Appelhans signed to an exclusive multi-year deal and a follow-up film reported by Deadline and others to be in development with Sony Pictures Animation. Variety has pointed to a target release of 2029, leaving a multi-year runway in which the live shows could keep the world of HUNTR/X alive between movies.

That timing is no accident. A 2027 tour ahead of a 2029 sequel keeps fans engaged through the long gap that animation production demands, while building a live business that could rival the franchise's streaming value. It also lands squarely inside two booms feeding each other: the global surge of K-pop, which has turned Korean acts into stadium headliners, and a renaissance in animated storytelling that increasingly drives both awards and audience numbers.

Whether HUNTR/X can hold a stage the way they held a chart remains the open question. The waitlist will fill long before the first date is announced, and the appetite is plainly there. If the live show delivers on the promise of bringing a two-time Oscar winner to life in arenas around the world, a band that started as a sketch may end up as one of the most unlikely concert draws of the decade.