If you’re missing BTS since their recent announcement of a short break, there are still opportunities to see your fav international boy group tucked into all sorts of places.
J-Hope, who’s recently released the first single from his new album will headline Lallapaloosa in Chicago on 31 July. And V – arguably the real star of Celine’s AW23 Paris Fashion Week event – will soon be on a Disney+ screen near you with a whole different band of mates on reality series In the Soop: Friendcation (Soop = ‘forest’ for you Korean language learners).
Announced recently, the mini-series not only delivers V (Kim Taehyung) but also a cast of heavy-hitting K-stars including Choi Woo-shik (Parasite, Our Beloved Summer, Time to Hunt), Park Seo-joon (Captain Marvel 2: The Marvels, Itaewon Class) actor/singer Park Hyung-sik (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, Suits, Juror 8) and rapper/singer/producer Peakboy (known for breakthrough hit Gin&Tonic, and body positivity tune, Diet).
How did this group get smashed together? In real life, they’re mates – collectively known as Wooga Squad. Park Seo-joon, Park Hyung-sik and Kim Taehyung performed together in the 2016 drama Hwarang (Netflix, Viki). While Park Seo-joon and Choi Woo-shik first worked together in 2012 on K-drama Shut Up Family and Park Seo-joon and Peakboy went to the same high school.
From the initial organigram, it looks like Park Seo-joon is the hinge that keeps them all together but the guys argue that it’s Kim Taehyung, with frequent calls and presumably a talent for organising, that keeps their friendship rolling.
In the Soop: Friendcation premieres on July 22, airing Fridays on South Korean cable network JTBC at 9pm KST, and available on Disney+ at 11pm KST thereafter for four episodes. Initially it will run in Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, but there’s hope for a global release date Yet to Come (pun intended).
As with previous In the Soop series, YouTube seems like a good bet if Disney+ doesn’t capitalise first. (Updates asap 🙂 )
The docuseries will be a paid vacation of sorts as the guys who’ll casually (and one imagines hilariously) spend a few days out in the woods relaxing and having fun. For Kim Taehyung, this is old skool, as BTS has done two In the Soop series, which you can find on YouTube with subtitles. So he may show up as cruise director as well.
In an interview in The Guardian earlier this year, Park Seo-joon spoke about, among other things, his good friends, Wooga Squad-mates.
“Not only do we share the same values, thoughts and perspectives on things but we are in similar industries, and so we are able to share advice. We try to comfort each other as human beings, because what I am going through could be something that the others might go through in the future.”
Awww, sweet.
So In the Soop should bring on the bestie feels as well revelations galore. But if you can’t possibly wait for the release and would like to see three of those charmers together, check out Hwarang, with a 20-year-old Kim Taehyung as baby warrior while Park Seo-joon and Park Hyung-sik face off like kings.
We’ll review In the Soop: Friendcation here soon after July 22. Care to see a Hwarang review?
How about BTS in the Soop 2021? Shout your fancy in the comments section below. For more stories on all sorts of content from this reviewer, click here: Kristen Lazur
Thanks Christine! Appreciate the love. Be sure to come back for the series reviews – would love to hear your thoughts 🙂
Cant wait to see the Wooga squad chemistry again. Nice article Kristen!