Labubu becomes a cinema hero: Paul King directs Pop Mart’s grinning monster for Sony Pictures. What is behind the project.
Labubu, the little monster with the big grin, becomes a cinema hero. The Chinese manufacturer Pop Mart is planning a film adaptation of the character together with Sony Pictures. Paul King, who has shown with films like “Paddington” and “Wonka” how to stage idiosyncratic characters in a visually extravagant manner, will direct. Steven Levenson, among others, is working on the script, while Labubu creator Kasing Lung is involved as an executive producer.
A mix of live action and CGI is planned. There are no concrete details about the start date, cast or plot yet. The film adaptation builds on the global hype that Labubus triggered in 2024.
Blind box hype and collector madness
Labubus became known primarily through their collecting instinct. Pop Mart made the figure a worldwide star through so-called blind boxes – small surprise packs that only reveal which version you have chosen once you open them.
The principle seems simple, but it is effective: artificial shortages, limited editions and ongoing social media hype continue to drive demand. Unboxing videos, collecting communities and ever new variations have made Labubu a global phenomenon. There are now hundreds of variants, some of which are strictly limited. On the secondary market, rare figures reach prices that are well above the original retail price. Labubu is therefore less a toy than a collector’s item and part of a visual internet culture.
Who are Labubus?
The actual origin lies in the book series “The Monsters” by Kasing Lung. Labubus are small, mostly female creatures – somewhere between a monster and an elf. Their distinctive features: large eyes, pointed ears and a wide, almost irritating grin. They live in a fairytale world that is heavily influenced by Nordic folklore.
In terms of content, they appear in stories and small episodes – encounters, short adventures, fragmentary stories. Labubu himself moves as a kind of trickster between playful and chaotic, sometimes innocent, sometimes almost scary. There is no classic hero’s journey or continuous plot. Instead, the world lives from mood, design and character constellations.
What could the film make of it?
This is a special starting point for the film: the book series provides characters, world and atmosphere, but no finished story. Paul King and his team have to develop a coherent plot that preserves the peculiarities of the Labubus.
Presumably the film will focus on the visually distinct, whimsical side while remaining accessible to a young audience. Whether he captures the fragmentary magic of the books or creates a new story out of them remains to be seen.
