Hi, it’s BTS, and you’re watching Disney Channel
The K-pop supergroup will reportedly produce three new projects for the The Walt Disney Company
Aux News Unknown
The Walt Disney Company (or, more likely, the very-online young daughter of a high-powered Disney executive) officially has BTS fever. The K-pop supergroup’s label Hybe is currently working on three upcoming projects with the House Of Mouse, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The slate of new projects includes BTS: Permission to Dance on Stage – LA, a 4K concert film chronicling the group’s November 2021 performance at Los Angeles’ Sofi Stadium. The show marked BTS’ first real-life encounter with fans since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The band will further see their meteoric global rise chronicled in more depth in a planned docuseries called BTS Monuments: Beyond the Star, set to be released on Disney’s streaming services in 2023.
However, the content also capitalizes on the group’s dedicated fandom, who will happily tune in to watch the band eat lunch together for an hour as long as it means existing in their favorite BTS boy’s aura. In The Soup: Friendcation is an original travel reality show that features V of BTS as well as a host of other Korean stars who’ve found success stateside, like Itaewon Class’ Seo-jun Park, Parasite’s Woo-shik Choi, Hyung-sik Park and Peakboy. The series will reportedly follow the five friends as they embark on a surprise vacation, capturing them offscreen, offstage, and in “real” life.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Hybe to showcase their original content created with powerful artist IP on our global streaming services including Disney+,” said Jessica Kam-Engle, Disney’s APAC head of content, per THR. “This collaboration represents our creative ambition—to work with iconic content creators and top stars in Asia-Pacific so their talent can be enjoyed by mainstream audiences in multiple ways. We believe these new titles will captivate consumers worldwide and look forward to introducing more music content on our service.” Park Ji-won, the CEO of Hybe, also emphasized that the three projects will mark “the start of a long-term collaboration.”
The news of the new partnership comes just a few weeks after BTS seemed to announce during their annual band-iversary luncheon that they were taking a “hiatus” to focus on individual projects. After the internet went wild with the news (and Hybe’s stocks plummeted), the company quickly stepped in to unequivocally assure fans BTS is very much still together. This new Disney slate certainly looks like proof of that—but the recent unfettered commentary from the band certainly leaves questions existing.
12 Comments
I don’t care a lick about BTS but that is a very clever headline, kudos.
The thing is the projects are going to streaming, and not the Disney Channel, so it’s incorrect.
Yes but it sounds funny is the key
Kid on the left. He must be “The Cool One”.
Kid second from the left. He must be “The Horny One”.
And next to him…The Groomer.
I guess as cool as you can be wearing a tacky yellow leisure suit from the 1970s.
He’s bringin’ it back.
It’s “In The Soop” (soop means forest in Korean). I sure hope somebody gets fired for that blunder…
The only BTS I’ll ever recognize is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. My muthafuckas at 1200 New Jersey Avenue (led by my girl Pat Hu!) know what I’m sayin’. Fuck these imposters.
The mouse is giving a show to the Bind, Torture, Strangle serial killer? You’ve gone too far, Disney!
That title was so good! I don’t think there are that many questions left, they were pretty clear in their explanation. 1) They said they won’t be doing new music together because they feel burned out and creatively stunted. This was all over the lyrics of the members who create lyrics and clearly showing for the last couple of years. 2) They said they would focus more on solo projects. One member is in the midst of releasing their new solo album and going to a music festival in the US at the end of the month. Most of the others have already mentioned the solo albums they are working on and there was mention of an order being in place for those. Different non-musical solo projects have been announced.3) They said they would still do some activities together as a group, which is also happening (even a concert in an event in Busan has been announced).I guess the open question is whether they’ll do new music together even though they said they certainly will. Most k-pop groups get a long break or slow down their group activities and productions as members start going to the military, at which point they usually start diversifying their careers and starting families. Groups that are big enough don’t disband. Some examples are Super Junior, SHINee, Big Bang or 2PM. It is nothing unsual except for the fact that BTS’s military service is still up in the air.