What's Next For BTS?

As of the middle of 2025, all of the members of BTS had served their mandatory military service and were out in the wild, wild world again.

ARMY (and I am sure a few media people as well) were crying, sobbing, and shaking in relief.

I had a few people asking for my opinion on what I think will be the next step for them. As if I am some sort of oracle able to predict the future of what is going to be the future for one of the biggest names in K-Pop. I mean, I could hazard a few guesses but the reality is… I don’t know.

When BTS really started making waves outside of Asia, they were still one of the very few to be doing so on a base level. But what made them and their promotional campaigns different was that they were the first to try and market to a widespread international market. At the time of their debut, companies were only using YouTube as a means of uploading their music videos (and the odd dance practice) on the platform, wanting to instead focus their video efforts on the homegrown Daum TV (now defunct, morphed into Kakao TV) and Naver TV video platforms. BTS were the only ones who were aggressively not only posting their music primarily on YouTube but also slices of life videos into manageable chunks of content called ‘Bangtan Bombs’. Whilst different groups had variety content (think 2PM’s Wild Bunny or the Showtime series that had groups such as Apink, EXO, and Infinite) or were featured on different shows/networks as individuals representing the group (We Got Married, Hello Baby, Star Golden Bell), the Bangtan Bombs were the first time that we were getting behind the scenes (ha, pun!) glimpse into what a group does when they are not performing or recording for a show. We saw the members being fascinated with helium balloons, miming to Linkin Park songs, recreating covers of their favourite artists, chilling on flights… K-pop idols suddenly felt very down to earth and human. And fans resonated with that. So the fandom grew.

(It's important to note that since then, every single group posts their content mostly on YouTube with a slice of life/variety focus with multiple language options as subtitles almost immediately.)

But then the dreaded two-word event crept up to them that often spelt the death knell for most male groups - military service. In a world where most groups try to wait until the very last minute before needing to serve, BTS bucked the trend and tried to all serve as close to each other as possible. Youngest member, Jungkook, was born in 1997 and has already completed his service whereas other artists who were born in 1996 are (at the time of writing) only just going into service (such as Hoshi and Woozi from fellow HYBE group Seventeen) The idea was to not elongate the process of  waiting for a full group activity as, minimum, serving in the military is about one year and six months. If they followed standard procedure, Jungkook would have left around 2029 and fans would have had seven years to wait before full group activity. Too long for a group in an industry often forgets you if you are away from the limelight for too long. And they knew that too.

So here’s the conundrum. Would the hype for BTS be the same as before they left for the military? In my opinion, no. But hear me out as to why. Is there still a huge fandom waiting for them? Of course, and if the posts claiming to wait for the news of their comeback concerts are anything to go by, tickets will sell like hot cakes, regardless of what location they decide to bless their presence with. 

The media reaction though? Especially, that of overseas (mostly the United States) media? They were mostly used for column inches and traction to their respective platforms and social media. But since their hiatus, there have been other groups that have taken on the mantle of clickbait with, and I am going to be completely honest here, better English and overall media skills. Using the example of ZeroBaseOne, the group birthed through MNET’s Boys Planet season one, six of the members speak English well enough to a conversational degree. So when they appear on foreign media, they all seem comfortable enough to engage in English or translate accurately what other members are trying to convey. A good example of this is their recent puppy interview with BuzzFeed where they were even communicating to each other in English. In the past BTS leader RM was praised for his English skills whilst being a native Korean, but this can no longer be the group’s selling point as several 4th and 5th gen groups have at least one member proficient enough in English that they can be comfortable enough in interviews. Even fellow same gen groups are showing off their abilities in English now- Monsta X were featured in another BuzzFeed series, ‘A K-Pop Group Styled Me For A Week’ without native English speaker member I.M. and I was honestly surprised with their fluency!

In the end, they may also feel that they don’t need to do as much as they did before enlistment. They are all multi-millionaires with an extensive back catalogue for their discography. I would not be surprised if they simply did a few releases every so often and let the momentum of their name carry them forward. It also gives them the ability to focus on individual pursuits also with each member having their own solo career with a distinct individual sound. I don’t think anyone would fault them for that, considering what they managed to achieve as a group in under a decade.

Either way, I will be waiting at the sidelines to see what kind of content they will be doing going forward. At the moment, it is mostly solo tours and featurings on other group projects, but RM has teased that the full group comeback will be happening in 2026 so we only have a couple of months to wait until we truly see what is next for BTS.