SM Entertainment, the largest idol company based in South Korea, is confirmed to debut a new boy group next year, four years after EXO was launched. The company is home to K-Pop global stars such as TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls' Generation, SHINee, F(x), EXO, and the new member of the family Red Velvet who debuted in 2014.
Most of the members of this new boy group will most likely come from SM Rookies who have had a fair exposure to the public by promoting through fan meetings, concerts, hosting on music shows, and even having their own variety show, "The Mickey Mouse Club", with Super Junior Leeteuk.
Since the agency's youngest girl group Red Velvet which is a small-scale in number originally had four members until it added Yeri during "Ice Cream Cake" promotions. The next entry by SM Entertainment is speculated to be a large-scale male group. There has been rumors circulating that the next group to debut from the company will have a maximum number of 24 members.
Interestingly, the agency introduced its newest addition to SM Rookies named Kun on December 18th who then received a warm welcome online by anticipating fans.
The company could be introducing new member everyday if it is actually planning to reach 24 people. The current SM Rookies trainees have 10 members like Yuta, Jaehyun, Johnny, Ten, and Taeyong to name a few, who are mostly teenagers from different Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China.
However, it seems like SM Entertainment is currently not in the mood to make large-scale groups like it did with Super Junior who had 15 members and EXO who started with 12 members. A representative from the company firmly stated that the 24 member-quota "is not true".
"I think we've tried all that we can with forming large groups already. In other words, there is no interest anymore in the number of members," tells the representative to the Korean media.
Additionally, the current listing of SM Rookies is revealed to be tentative as well. "While it is true that the SM Rookies are very active these days (with their variety shows) and that there will be a group debuting next year, how many members and who, and what genre have not been decided yet," continues the spokesperson.
The company is wary to release any information about who will be in the new group in consideration to their current trainees who could get "hurt" as they are all "working hard in order to debut."
It will be no wonder if SM Entertainment debuts a larger group than EXO and Super Junior as it is the trend in today's rookie groups like Seventeen, Twice, and even Cosmic Girls.
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