SM Entertainment (hereafter SM)'s male trainee team SMTR25 will hold a festival and meet fans.
On the morning of the 5th, Mnet Plus's official SNS posted a notice inviting pre-recording applications for the festival that will close out the finale of "Reply, High School," drawing attention.
This festival will be held privately on the 25th at a location in Busan with only the 920 people who won the pre-application attending, and since it will allow a direct glimpse of the still-veiled broadcast content and the trainees' appearances, the application enthusiasm is expected to be strong.
With SM, which possesses a distinctive training system and cultural heritage, joining forces with EggIsComing, a solid planning company that has produced numerous successful variety shows and dramas, "Reply, High School" is drawing anticipation, and the production team directly introduced the program's planning intent and viewing points.
Shin Hyo-jung, the PD who directed the program, introduced the starting point of the program, saying the reason for planning "Reply, High School" was, "This program started from the desire to capture real school days. School experiences vary widely by era, and I thought the cultures each generation experienced become important keywords for reminiscing about school days." She added, "Through the SMTR25 project, I thought it would be good to also reflect the 30-year history shared with the K-pop fandom, so we joined forces with SM."
She continued on the title "Reply, High School," saying, "We discussed the title with director Shin Won-ho of the Reply series and writer Lee Woo-jung, and chose it. After hearing the program explanation, it was immediately decided as 'Reply, High School,'" revealing the behind-the-scenes of the title.
As another viewing point, she explained, "I think the freshness and innocence possible because they are trainees, and their willingness to give their best at everything, will be key viewing points. The stories shown by peers who are actual high school students or just graduated may become somewhat different stories that even the production team could not predict."
On that day, an interview video of the 15 SMTR25 members appearing in "Reply, High School" (Nicholas, Katsho, Justin, Hyunjun, U-rin, Han-bi, Songha, Kachin, Sadaharu, Tata, Daniel, Haruta, Hamin, Charlie, Jaewon) was released on the YouTube channel, and the members' TMI they spoke about directly, as well as their impressions and determination regarding the program, raised anticipation for the main episode.
This program is SMTR25's first solo variety show, depicting the journey of 15 trainees who enrolled in school seeking the answer to their debut and were assigned to classes with concepts of the '90s, the '00s, and the '10s respectively, feeling the sensibilities and cultures unique to those times and running toward the day when their future dreams will respond. It is set to air on a global platform in the first half of 2026 and is expected to receive an explosive response.
SMTR25 is a multinational male trainee team under SM that was unveiled through a tribute stage for SM's 30th anniversary at the concert 'SMTOWN LIVE 2025' held in Seoul in January, and they later took the stage at 'SMTOWN LIVE' performances in Mexico City, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo, raising expectations for their growth as next-generation artists who will lead the future.
[Photo] Provided by SM Entertainment.
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