Bad Bunny conjured the KPop Demon Hunters trio HUNTR/X during the season 51 premiere of Saturday Night Live on Oct. 4.
In the six-minute sketch, fittingly titled “KPop Demon Hunters,” the Puerto Rican superstar — who hosted the episode alongside musical guest Doja Cat — plays Thomas, a brunch-goer passionately defending his love for the wildly popular animated Netflix movie.
“It’s actually not for kids. It’s for smart adults,” Bad Bunny’s Thomas says to skeptical friends. “In KPop Demon Hunters, songs are not just songs. They are weapons,” he continues. “What else is gonna save you from demons, you idiot.”
The sketch takes a chaotic turn when SNL cast member Bowen Yang appears as one of the film’s demons and possesses Sarah Sherman by belting out the hit song “Soda Pop.” Just in time, HUNTR/X — voiced in the movie by EJAE, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna — arrive to save the day, performing their smash single “Golden” and vanquishing the demon.
The sketch marked the first-ever live televised performance of “Golden,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. HUNTR/X is slated to deliver their first full-length live performance of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Oct. 7, where they’ll also sit down for an interview.
The news comes roughly three months after KPop Demon Hunters premiered on Netflix, rapidly becoming a pop culture phenomenon. In addition to “Golden,” three other tracks from the film’s soundtrack — “How It’s Done,” “What It Sounds Like,” and “Takedown” — have landed in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The film’s soundtrack also made history as the first to top the U.S. albums chart since Encanto in 2022.
Watch HUNTR/X’s surprise SNL cameo below.
