Are NewJeans Really Back?

It's been a long road for NewJeans, from the halcyon days of their chart-topping Get Up EP, to a yearslong legal dispute tied to allegations of workplace mistreatment and copyright infringement, to a failed attempt to rebrand as NJZ. The K-pop group officially announced a hiatus in 2025, and there has been little news since then—until today (July 21), when their label, HYBE imprint ADOR, released a series of short videos featuring the group’s four remaining members, Hyein, Haerin, Hanni, and Minji. (A fifth member, Danielle, acrimoniously parted ways with ADOR late last year.) ADOR introduced the clips’ “commemorative content” to mark the fourth anniversary of NewJeans’ debut, adding, “We plan to announce NewJeans' specific activity plans and methods after discussions are completely finalized.” It’s still unclear what, exactly, that new activity will look like, but in the meantime, it’s worth revisiting the thorny history behind one of the most successful K-pop acts of the 2020s.