In another brief resurrection of the blog, this post will entail what happened as of February 11th, 2026 regarding the current pending future of KPOP boy group Zerobaseone.
Wanna know how much time changed since the initial three part series over this group? Buckle up, buckaroo. It's a doozy and a half.
Since the three part series discography recap, initial panic and confusion within the ZB1 fandom at the hand of their goddamn label came about in late fall of last year. November 30th, 2025 marked when Wakeone ("WK1" for shorthand), released a nothingburger statement saying that the group's contract was extended from January of 2026 (the original deadline of the contract) to a new end, March of 2026. For those asking, "Why the fuck would you bother extending contracts if it's to kick the can down the road only two months more?" there's an answer from Part 3.
Remember the audacity ridden seven cities across Southeast Asia that WK1 and co. stupidly named a "World Tour"? As it turns out, thanks to a leak from around the group's appearance at the 2025 MAMA Awards, a concert date in Seoul for March of 2026 was made known. Fans quickly determined this was a "farewell concert" or what was believed to be the last ever concert of the group before all but confirmed disbandment in March (adding salt to the wound that a concert date in Kanagawa, Japan for February 18th and 19th and a concert date in Seoul for March 13th, 14th and 15th is called an "ENCORE" of the HERE & NOW Tour.)
In a comment section for "contract discussions" on the subreddit for ZB1, a fan had notes on what a statement from Yuehua Entertainment said about activities for their artists under ZB1/WK1:
"My interpretation of the recent YH statement is that the exclusive contract ( the original 2.5 year contract) is finished and that the additional 2 month contract extension is non-exclusive and was only done because wakeone's incompetent ass failed to book a concert venue in time. I assume the yuehuaz will move out of the zb1 dorms, meet the confirmed trainees for yhnbg and immediately start preparing for their debut, while also promoting as zb1 members. I can't imagine how confusing of a time that will be for them..."
Fun fact: the original deadline for the contract was around January 10th...AKA Gunwook's birthday. Fun fact 2: Yuehua put out a statement about the members they have in the group still continuing activities for the time being...before WK1.
Then, January 13th or so rolls around. In a post made to Naver (to my understanding, an entertainment and pop culture news site), rumors of five Zerobaseone members renewing their contract with WK1 to continue as ZB1 comes to the fans' attention. The journalist reporting on the story had once before correctly pointed out that EVNNE members Ji Yunseo and Yoo Seungeon would be headed back to Yuehua Entertainment after the initial contract for EVNNE had run course.
Let's review that paragraph for the uninitiated:
- EVNNE was a seven member group made of Boys Planet also-rans, under Jellyfish Entertainment. Yunseo and Seungeon were from Yuehua Entertainment. [Yuehua also had two more "G-group" or Global trainees who competed on the show. Brian who ended up on FNC Entertainment and their group AMPERS&ONE and Ollie, who won/ranked #1 on the Hong Kong survival show Asia Super Young, earning a spot in Loong9.]
- Jellyfish Entertainment is where Gunwook was a trainee before competing on Boys Planet and winning a spot in ZB1.
- Yuehua Entertainment is where Hao, Ricky, Gyuvin and Yujin were from before they won spots in ZB1.
- The intentionally vague statement from Yuehua and the nothingburger statement from WK1 were meant to be that way, because there's no fucking way detailed business plans get told on the goddamn internet. Especially not before the first "ENCORE" tour date.
Then, February 11th comes [one week before the Kanagawa and first "ENCORE" date], the announcement is made. ZB1 are renewing, but as a 5 member group. Jiwoong, Hanbin, Matthew, Taerae and Gunwook will carry on as the group. Jiwoong and Hanbin as far as the fans understand are in forgiving, non-exclusive contracts with their management/peoples and WK1. Taerae was a WK1 artist anyway and Matthew and Gunwook had their deals announced first which basically meant WK1 bought out Matthew's contract with MNH Entertainment and Gunwook's contract with Jellyfish Entertainment.
As expected, the Yuehua line of Hao, Ricky, Gyuvin and Yujin are not continuing as part of the group and are all but doomed facing/finalizing whatever Yuehua has planned for them after March. The scale of this has a good chunk of the fanbase conflicted as they like the fact that the group isn't disbanding on such a Re-Flow sized bummer. Oh what's Re-Flow you ask? It's a 3-track EP that was built up as a "limited album" that was made to look like a "graduation" from the group...it's a fucking mess is what I'm getting at, but there's reason for that.
A "graduation" photo like they got turned into "ZB148", iCannot. Though for the visual learners or those whose tea needs to be refreshed, Top to Bottom, L-R:
Jiwoong, Hanbin, Gunwook, Ricky, Hao, Gyuvin, Matthew, Yujin, Taerae.
In January, the official social media for ZB1 post not only the "limited album" poster for Re-Flow but also the scheduler that revealed it was three songs each getting a "music video". Come February 2nd, the EP is released and...commercially, it performed better than expected of an EP passed off as a "limited album" but became the group's worst performing release with a peak of #3 in Korea. The three songs themselves weren't the problem in terms of vocals. But let's take a look at the runtime of each song, shall we?
- "Running to Future" (3:19)
- "Roses" (2:21)
- "Lovepocalypse" (2:49)
Two songs under three minutes and one song being under 2:30? Electric and I can't stress enough, CHAIR. But for the purposes of the post, we're gonna be taking a look at the actual "title track" or single, "Lovepocalypse".
While the songs on Re-Flow are good, "Lovepocalypse" ended up being the least depressing of them all. "Running to Future" was emotionally devastating for the fans despite it being a great song for the group vocally. "Roses" was good but a slap in the face with a short run time and a shitty "music video". All three songs in fact got shitty "music videos" that were montaged clips in the past or whatever the fuck "Roses" was supposed to be. When you manage to have a worse video than "Feel the Pop", you've truly fucked up.
As for "Lovepocalypse" and its "music video", apparently the mood board was tour footage a la "Because of Love" by Janet Jackson from the janet. album. It couldn't even be like the music video for the Japanese version of "ICONIK" where it looked like they filmed in a hotel lobby and conference room with a faulty electrical outlet acting as "special FX".
Vocally, "Lovepocalypse" delivers for the group and enough of the fanbase in Korea agreed as it managed to chart and presumably peak at #61. It's also the only video from this last OT9 era to get views in the millions. "Running to Future" sits in the 877k range while "Roses" flopped to hell views wise at a paltry 309k views.
Yet there's one thing to note with the group continuing as 5, with the Yuehua-line departing. Some of the magic of the group is leaving with them. Again, some of the magic is leaving; not talent. It's a rarity that 9 people can be placed into a group and actually be able to sing. But as to measure how seismic the shift really is, let's review who's leaving the group after the March concert in Seoul.
Hao, Ricky, Gyuvin and Yujin. In other words, Rank 1/Center/a quote "main" vocalist and one half of THEE premium ZB1 ship "Haobin"; the "visual" who was actually a great vocalist and given the bridge most of the time; the meme-lord and personality of the group who at least had vocal ability and harmonies and the perpetual "little brother" of the group who acted as a glue for the lower register harmonies, and was the surprise on "Step Back" despite it being a weird placement in that unit song. Taking unit songs into consideration, this means:
- 2/5 of "EXTRA" [Gyuvin and Yujin] are leaving
- 2/3 of "Out of Love" [Hao and Gyuvin] and "Step Back" [Ricky and Yujin] are leaving
- 1/2 of "Long Way Back" [Hao and Ricky] are leaving
With Hao and Ricky leaving, that's the group's entire C-line or Chinese members out. Ricky and Gyuvin leaving, that's also 2/3 of the English speaking line out as well, leaving only Matthew behind [for what it's worth, about more than half of OT9 can speak English just fine as long as you don't try to use super niche slang.] Taking the shipping or duos/trios into consideration...there's a lot to process.
Ships/duos/trios/whatever that are effectively done in ZB1 come March include:
- "Hariboz" [Hao and Ricky]
- "Mehddakz" [Taerae and Yujin]
- "Sambokz" [Jiwoong and Yujin]
- "HaoMattBin" [Hao, Matthew and Hanbin]
- "Digimonz" [Matthew and Ricky]
- "Minamz" [Ricky and Jiwoong]
- "Shimkongz" [Ricky and Gyuvin]
and potentially the biggest seismic shift from the OT5 continuation...
- "Haobin" [Hao and Hanbin]
If Hao and Hanbin are an item anyway...gurl that ain't my business and especially not the business of any solo trolls pretending to be solo stans.
The point is, there's more to look forward to from OT5 and whatever good things Yuehua actually has in store for Gyuvin and Yujin in a potential new group. Given the amount of commercial work with OSTs and brand ambassadorships, there's two distinct paths Hao could be facing. The first is a solo career which would be the prudent approach. Not that he couldn't be the force behind a new group, but let's be real: no one would put Lady Gaga in KATSEYE. Solo wise, there's a very likely possibility Hao is directed to China for solo stardom though he's expressed wanting to be in the Korean sphere for his entertainment career.
Someone in a KPOP subreddit did point out that sometimes within a new group, solo acts can still thrive whilst maintaining a group presence. That in turn made me think of a solo act from a group: TEN from NCT and the China-based unit WayV.
Hao easily has it in him to go the direction of "Stunner" or even "Nightwalker", which TEN even cleared for season 1 of Chuang Asia: Thailand. I bring that up because Hao is being propped as a potential solo star or at least "the name" for maybe possibly another group. But TEN's career trajectory is at least a great blueprint to go off of in the event Hao ends up in another group or goes solo.
Ricky on the other hand does face an up in the air scenario. I'm not saying he can't be the very same force he was in ZB1 for another group, and as a soloist, he does possess a lot of the right qualities; group work might have been holding him back. He is however, the only one whose mistreatment has ever gone to an extreme, i.e. the time a fan group sued WK1 for losing custom in-ears a global fan group of his pitched in and gifted to him to use in concerts/on tour.
And as the official statement from the fan group says, while the lawsuit meant they would be compensated for the in-ears, an apology and explanation of what happened were not fulfilled. In other words, a fan group sued the label AND WON.
If not anything with a group or solo endeavors yet, Ricky does have a similar brand ambassador path before him. Specifically the time he devoured an Urban Decay campaign and brand ambassadorship.
That's only 1 of 3 because the other 2 would gagnify you, as the children say.
As for the remaining OT5 of ZB1, again, there's more to look forward to than one would think. I'll resurrect the blog if and when an OT5 release comes on my radar. In regards to international expansion as a 5-piece, yeah they could continue. We don't know yet if the deal they had with Virgin Music Group had a contingency for member changes or something but sure.
As far as touring in the U.S. beyond the scope of KCON LA...babe if they didn't tour the U.S. with all 9 members (especially with Ricky wanting it more than anyone), we can put that dream to rest once and for all. We'll be lucky if we get another BuzzFeed Celeb appearance out of OT5 before either Jiwoong's acting career resurging or his enlistment.
Until then, there's no point "Running to Future" until it's time to do so.
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