The BTS comeback is heating up. After announcing that their fifth full-length album, Arirang, is coming on March 20, the Bangtan Boys are doubling down with a pair of upcoming specials heralding their return from a nearly four-year hiatus.
On Monday (Feb. 2), it was announced that the K-pop supergroup’s first live show in three years will stream exclusively on Netflix the day after the LP’s release. BTS the Comeback Live | Arirang will debut on the streamer at 7 a.m. ET on March 21, less than a day after the album’s drop. It will find members RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook taking the stage at Seoul, South Korea’s historic Gwanghwamun Square, the main gate of the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.
In even more good news for ARMY, the group’s long-awaited comeback will also be chronicled in BTS: The Return, a full-length documentary slated to premiere on Netflix on March 27. The special directed by Bao Nguyen (The Greatest Night in Pop) is a companion to the live concert and will pull back the curtain on the the preparations for their return and the making of the new album.
“The film offers rare behind-the-scenes access as the group comes back together and charts an unprecedented path forward together after a nearly four-year hiatus,” read a statement from Netflix. Following their mandatory military service, the septet regrouped in Los Angeles to record the new album and according to the release, “they return to a shared creative space after being shaped by time apart and personal change. For their next chapter, they reflect on their whirlwind past as they contemplate what the future of BTS will look and sound like.”
The doc promises an intimate look at the performers as they “work through doubt and share in moments of laughter and rediscovery. BTS contemplates how to begin again, how to honor the past without being bound by it, and how to define an ever-evolving identity as the bandmates grow as artists and global icons.”
The Netflix two-fer will set up the group’s recently announced 79-show 2026-2027 global tour, their first road trip since 2022’s BTS Permission to Dance on Stage. The tour is slated to kick off on April 9 with the first of three nights in Goyang, South Korea, before hitting Tokyo and touching down in the U.S. in April for the first stateside shows on April 25-26 in Tampa, Fla.
Arirang is BTS’ first studio album since 2022’s Map of the Soul: 7.
Check out the poster for the Netflix concert and doc below.
