Screenwriter Hannah McMechan is crediting TikTok’s fan-driven culture for turning KPop Demon Hunters into a global phenomenon, saying organic fan edits, not traditional promotion, were the driving force behind the film’s explosive popularity.
McMechan shared her perspective during Variety and Adobe’s Storytelling for Fans The Future of Audience Engagement panel at the Sundance Film Festival 2026, moderated by Variety’s Angelique Jackson at the Adobe House. The panel explored how modern fandoms are formed and sustained in the digital age.
The discussion brought together voices from across entertainment and tech, including Stacy Martinet of Adobe, Jason Cassidy from Focus Features, Dawn Yang, actor Mason Gooding, and McMechan herself.
McMechan said KPop Demon Hunters was created with deep respect for K-pop fandom culture a decision that ultimately paid off. “We believed that the fans would just eat this alive if we did it justice,” she said. “All of us were KPop fans so the whole time we were like, if this finds the KPop fans, it will blow up. But if it’s buried and it’s not marketed, then maybe no one will see it.”
Rather than relying on a traditional marketing rollout, the animated film gained traction through TikTok fan edits, character fancams, lore breakdowns, and fan art that treated the fictional group like a real K-pop act. That grassroots engagement helped propel the film to unprecedented heights.
The Netflix release shattered records, becoming the platform’s most-watched film of all time with more than 518 million views in six months, and went on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.
McMechan emphasized that TikTok’s influence was decisive. “That is why that movie blew up,” she said. “There really was no other marketing other than a trailer.” She added, “It was fully just people making edits on TikTok — and then it blew up.”
From an actor’s standpoint, Gooding said successful fandom engagement comes from understanding what a story is trying to express. “Recognizing what a thing has to say — what a movie, TV show, book is trying to articulate to its audience and articulating that through performance in a way that resonates with the people watching it,” he explained.
He added, “I love that this generation, in juxtaposition to the ones that came before, has kind of removed the focus on the individual and allowed a more communal or social dynamic to take place in the landscape of art, specifically as it relates to film.”
Yang highlighted TikTok’s ability to amplify that communal energy, pointing to fan-made edits surrounding Sinners as another example of organic engagement driving real-world success.
“People saw the movie, started talking about the movie, started doing some edits, and then there was that very high box office result,” she said.
Gooding summed up the panel’s theme with a closing reflection: “There’s storytelling for fans, but more important is the storytelling with fans.”
Source: Variety