NCTzens, are you ready to meet the members of a brand-new NCT Unit? 

SM Entertainment released on Wednesday, July 19, the first trailer for its upcoming pre-debut reality show NCT Universe: LASTART. 

The two-and-a-half minute video gives fans a closer look at the 10 participating aspiring idols, the training and challenges that they had to go through, and the evaluators who will assess the performance of the candidates. 

SM Entertainment artists such as TVXQ’s Changmin, Super Junior’s Donghae, SHINee’s Taemin, EXO’s Xiumin, and NCT’s Ten and Taeyeong were shown to have visited the trainees in the practice room to give mentorship. 

Meanwhile, H.O.T’s Kangta, Super Junior’s Leeteuk and Ryeowook, Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon, and NCT’s Johnny and Haechan also had brief appearances in the trailer — but they all appeared to be giving feedback while sitting in a studio. 

BoA, Super Junior’s Eunhyuk, and SHINee’s Key were also introduced as “artist directors” for the show. 

Meet the 10 participants

Prior to the release of the trailer, SM Entertainment has also unveiled all 10 candidates through individual videos. Thep participating trainees go by the names: Riku, Ryo, Haruta, Kassho, Anderson, Jungmin, Ryu, Minjae,  Heitetsu, and Sakuya.

 

The trailer revealed that the 10 trainees were chosen from all over the world. 

Only six members will be part of NCT Tokyo. Four members are going to be chosen from the reality show NCT Universe: LASTART, while the other two members are SM Rookies Yushi and Sion. 

SM Entertainment CEO Jang Cheo-hyuk announced in May that their plans of debuting several groups. 

NCT Tokyo will be the final sub-unit of NCT. Currently, NCT has 20 members that are scattered along several sub-units: NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, and NCT U. NCT127 also has its own sub-unit, which is DoJaeJung. 

The agency also plans to debut a new girl group and a new boy group, which will include former NCT members Shotaro and Sungchan and  SM Rookies Eunseok and Seunghan. 

SM Entertainment has yet to announce final debut dates for these said groups. Stay tuned here for more updates!

Featured image: Screenshot from SM’s YouTube