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The Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters' illustrator, Henry Wong, unveiled an initial storyboard where the characters participate in a sports show. Recently, Henry Wong dropped a few sketches on his official Instagram page depicting scenes featuring Jinu and Rumi in a stadium corridor. He explained that these sequences were inspired by the real-life sports show Idol Star Athletic Championship.
Notably, Idol Star Athletic Championship, or ISAC, is an annual show on MBC where several K-pop idols participate in different games, including archery, track running, futsal, and more. They also interact with fans who come to support them and provide them with several gifts, meals, and desserts.
Henry Wong revealed a picture of Saja Boys, including all five members, where Abby's hair was green while Baby's hair was blonde. The colors and tone of the images appeared to be different from those used in KPop Demon Hunters. As fans were curious, Henry Wong stated that the sketches were from when the characters’ visuals were not finalized.
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Besides this, the illustrator also showcased the sketches of a stadium where several K-pop artists were standing according to their groups. This created much excitement among fans, and they flooded his Instagram comment section, urging the KPop Demon Hunters makers to release the omitted scenes or that the film should have been a series.
"This is why it should have been a series," a fan said.
"I can just imagine Huntrix and Saja Boys competing in Idol sports and needing to win without using any powers," a fan commented.
"OMG, the ISAC !!! This team is so real. They know Kpop I love imagining how good they all are on this because of their combat skills. And how each of the characters would react to this :D," another fan commented.
As fans saw the deleted graphics from KPop Demon Hunters initial storyboard, they urged the makers to release them in short story format. Fans were ecstatic about the visuals and expressed their wish to watch details about other HUNTR/X members and Saja Boys.
"Imagine we get deleted scenes of this scene. I want to see Abby with official hair color in that idol sports scene," a user added.
"Now i need a short stories of that and all the deleted scenes until we get the second movie," a netizen wrote.
"A mini series with scenes in between what happened in the movie (zoey's us life, mira's family, gwima's story, this, the aquarium date, etc...)," a user stated.
KPop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang speaks on the deleted Idol Star Athletic Championship scene
The Netflix and Sony Animation Pictures movie titled KPop Demon Hunters has created a buzz among K-pop fans as they resonate with the Korean pop culture depiction, music, and the characters. Maggie Kang, the director behind the hit film, spoke to Forbes about the K-pop culture illustration in the anime, including the popular sports show Idol Star Athletic Championship.
Maggie Kang stated that the executives were not familiar with the sports competition where all K-pop artists gather to showcase their athletic skills. Thus, the ISAC sequence was replaced by the fan sign event.
“For people who don’t know, [ISAC] is like the Olympics for Korean idols. When we cut that scene in, all the executives were like, 'What is this? Why are they suddenly doing the Olympics and running hurdles and doing archery?' That eventually became a fan signing event. But, for a very long time, they had Rumi and Jinu doing archery as they were having that conversation,” she said.
Released on June 20, 2025, the film follows the tale of a K-pop girl band, HUNTR/X (Rumi, Mira, and Zoey), who use their music and voices to protect the fans and civilians from deadly demons. HUNTR/X's new rivals are rookie boy group Saja Boys (Jinu, Abby, Mystery, Romance, and Baby). Saja Boys are demons who plot against HUNTR/X and target their fans to make their boss demon, Gwi-ma, more powerful.
Viewers may tune into Netflix to watch KPop Demon Hunters.
