BTS Targets a Record 5th Kids' Choice Award as KPop Demon Hunters Gets a Sequel

BTS enters the 2026 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards with three nominations and a specific record on the line: a fifth Favorite Music Group or Duo trophy, which would extend their own all-time mark in the category. The group won it four consecutive years from 2020 through 2023, and a win this November would put clear daylight between them and any act that follows.

The nominations, announced on the 8th, also cover their album ARIRANG in the Favorite Album category and the track "SWIM" for Favorite Song. BLACKPINK is nominated alongside BTS in the group category, meaning two of K-pop's biggest acts are competing head-to-head for the same slime-covered trophy.

K-pop's wider footprint at the KCAs

The Korean industry's presence extends well beyond those two groups. BLACKPINK's Rosé is nominated for Favorite Female Artist. Jennie earned a Favorite Music Collaboration nod for "Dracula," her joint track with Australian band Tame Impala. KATSEYE, the global girl group launched through a partnership between HYBE and Geffen Records, picked up a Favorite Female Breakout Artist or Group nomination.

The animated film KPop Demon Hunters landed perhaps the most varied set of nominations of any single title. The film itself is up for Favorite Animated Movie. Its theme song "Golden," performed by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Ray Ami, is nominated for Favorite Song from a Movie. Voice actors Aden Cho and Ahn Hyo-seop are each up for their respective animated voice performance categories, and Aden Cho, Yoo Ji-young, and May Hong are nominated together in the newly created Favorite Onscreen Duo or Trio category.

Ahn Hyo-seop voiced Jinu, the leader of Lion Boyz, delivering his lines in English. His competition in the male voice category includes Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hanks, Jack Black, and Chris Pratt. The breadth of that list is a reasonable measure of how far KPop Demon Hunters traveled outside its core audience.

On the overall nominations chart, Taylor Swift leads all acts with six nods. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each have five. Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, and Olivia Rodrigo also appear across major categories.

The ceremony takes place November 14 at Television City in Los Angeles, broadcast live on CBS and Nickelodeon and available on Paramount+.

The sequel is heading to theaters

Separate from the awards news, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed at the Bloomberg Screentime event on September 30 that a KPop Demon Hunters sequel is in development with a full theatrical release planned. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, who helmed the original, are returning.

Sarandos was direct about the reasoning: "There needs to be the potential to do big business in theaters, even at the risk of what we do on Netflix." He cited KPop Demon Hunters alongside a Chronicles of Narnia project as examples of titles that clear that bar.

The original film, released on Netflix in June 2025, follows a K-pop group called Huntrix that secretly protects the world from supernatural threats. It crossed 300 million views within 90 days of release, a figure Netflix lists as a record for its film catalog. A sing-along theatrical version ran in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK in August 2025, selling out more than 1,300 screenings.

The sequel is currently expected to arrive in 2029. Early returns on the first film's numbers suggest the theatrical bet is less a gamble than it looks: 1,300 sell-outs on a limited sing-along run, with no wide release infrastructure behind it, is the ceiling here proving itself. The full theatrical rollout will have a much larger runway to work with.