SM Entertainment has confirmed that they will be debuting a new multinational group next year, most likely a boy group. Other details haven’t been released, but there’s a rumor floating around the K-pop industry that SM Entertainment will be debuting a group with a whopping 24 members.

Exactly how the agency will round up 24 members is not part of the rumors, but with SM managing SMRookies, which already has 10 males, the speculation is that it won’t be hard to get to 24. Many are extrapolating from the fact that SM’s Super Junior once had 13 members and K-pop groups, like Seventeen (13 members) and Cosmic Girls (12 members) are showing a trend for very large groups. SM would just be one-upping everyone.

However, when asked about the 24 member group debuting, a SM rep stated, “It is not true.” The rep continued, “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. While it is true that the SMRookies are very active these days [with their show] and that there will be a group debuting next year, how many members and who, and what genre have not been decided yet.” The rep concluded, “Unconfirmed rumors about the [upcoming] team members can be hurtful to the members of SMRookies who are working hard in order to debut.”

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