Disney Just Struck a Deal to Find Its Own ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ and It’s Betting Big on Korea

Netflix’s ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ proved something the entertainment industry had underestimated for years: K-pop and animation, when paired correctly, could produce one of the biggest streaming phenomena ever made. The Sony Pictures Animation production became Netflix’s most-watched original title in history, spawned four simultaneous top-10 hits on the Billboard chart, and even turned a modest sing-along theatrical release into an unexpected box office win.

That kind of success hasn’t gone unnoticed by rival studios, and Disney appears determined not to miss out on the next version of it. Disney has built a strong footprint in South Korea already, with hits like ‘Moving’ marking its first original series in the region, alongside a steady stream of K-pop-focused movies and documentaries covering acts like BTS.

Now Disney is taking that presence a step further. Disney Korea has struck a new deal with Kakao Entertainment to launch what the two companies are calling a “K-culture fund,” aiming to pursue roughly ten projects over the medium to long term that blend K-pop IP with Disney’s own stories and characters.

Both companies were clear that the partnership is still being finalized, and neither side has attached a specific dollar figure to the fund itself. Even so, the framing of the deal, explicitly aimed at bringing “K-pop IP and Disney’s stories and characters” together, signals a clear intent to chase the kind of crossover success ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ achieved for Netflix and Sony.

Kakao Entertainment brings serious weight to the table as a partner, having been founded in 2021 as an offshoot of Korean media giant Kakao and building out a portfolio that includes talent agencies, production companies and other entertainment arms across the K-culture industry. That positions the company as one of the most connected players in Korean pop culture heading into this collaboration.

A spokesperson for Kakao Entertainment framed the partnership around K-pop’s expanding cultural footprint, noting that the genre has grown well beyond music alone to influence areas like fashion and lifestyle globally. They added that combining K-pop artists and music with Disney’s globally loved stories could offer fans “a special kind of joy and inspiration that they have never experienced before.”

‘KPop Demon Hunters’ itself set an extraordinarily high bar for what this kind of crossover can achieve, surpassing 500 million total views on Netflix and earning multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations along the way. Whether Disney and Kakao’s new venture can replicate even a fraction of that success remains to be seen, but the sheer scale of ten planned projects suggests Disney isn’t interested in a single one-off attempt.

With K-pop’s global influence continuing to grow and animation studios increasingly eager to capture that audience, this partnership positions Disney to compete directly in a space Netflix and Sony currently dominate.

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