BTS's 2026 comeback: Will it be their boldest, rawest chapter yet? Hints of HYYH and Dark & Wild linger

ARMY’s will remember the distress of 2022 vividly: The boys were there, but there was an air of restrained anxiety and worry around them. It came pouring through in the 2022 Festa, and then in little hints after that, despite J-Hope’s triumphant solo album and heart-pounding Lollapalooza. They were meant to perform in Busan, October, but there was a peculiar worry around this particular performance, ranging from rumours surrounding the probability of it, at all, and the enlistment over their heads.

RM appeared once on Weverse Live, and gave hints: There was a lot going on, and he couldn't talk much about it.

After the Busan performance that was in parts electrifying and suspiciously emotional, the band announced that they would be enlisting for military service, and not waiting for the probability of exemption or not. And the departures began, one after the other: First Jin, who released Astronaut, and left, quietly after shaving his head on Weverse Live. The first crack in the armour. -Jungkook’s teary eyes were seared in ARMY’s minds for a while. In the following year, J-Hope left, followed by Suga, and then Jungkook, V, RM and Jimin.

The effect was rather visceral on social media accounts, ARMY’s coped by charting their debut song No More Dream and brought it back to the charts, a rare feat, considering it was Christmas at the time.

For six months, we only had breadcrumbs from them: There were external strains occurring, between the NewJeans, ADOR fiasco, and moreover, it was clear among other things, RM seemed to be suffering the most, and was desperate to leave, going by his Instagram posts, that was doing a countdown. The ominous song Stop The Rain, a collaboration with Tablo, provided ARMY’s an uneasy insight into RM’s mind of the past few years.

 But they returned. In June 2025, it was a triumphant reunion, the boys were home, sharing scant details of their time inside the military service. It was difficult and painful as Jungkook and Jimin agreed, but they had each other, so they were able to pull through.

V, who had been in the special forces, had suffered a various round of injuries too. RM came clean with his trauma: He had suffered insomnia and had to be on medication.

We still don’t have a clear idea about Suga: The rapper, despite now being seen smiling with the others, hasn’t come for a personal Weverse Live as yet, and fans attribute the DIU spectacle to this silence, where misinformation was spread about him till the point that ARMY’s had to step in and prove the K-Media reports wrong.

Nevertheless, the boys are now in LA, after Jin has wrapped up a victorious tour that seemed to get more emotional about Spring Day, the band’s love letter to their fans. In LA, we know a few things: They’re preparing for their next album. And more importantly, they’re laughing and smiling together again, as ARMY’s see.

We don’t know exactly the level of stress, but many fans ascertain that the band is far less stressed and anxious than they were before in 2022.  There’s the dimples and laughter, messing around that fans had missed so much.

the photos they share from LA, are anything to go by: They will keep us informed.

 So, what will their new album be? More importantly, what they will be like together on stage again? The boys hinted in their first reunion live that they’re going back to basics. And that, for fans means: A possibility of their Dark & Wild era revisited: The power and adrenaline of Danger. Or maybe beyond this era too: After all, it was BTS in the early years who gave us Dope, Fire, Idol. Perhaps, we can finally get the closure to HYYH, that we need too: The grief, angst of I Need You and Run, with the whimsical melodies of Butterfly still demands an answer.

 ARMYs aren’t just waiting for songs. They’re waiting for the seven of them, standing side by side, singing again without the weight of uncertainty. After years of silence, rumors, and countdowns, the fact that they came back at all feels like the greatest gift. Everything else is a bonus.