“SM Culture Universe”: Cool Connections Between aespa, NCT, SuperM & BoA Could Mark The Start Of The SMCU
Aside from the incredible talent and visuals aespa are showing in their debut title track, “Black Mamba”, one thing has caught fans’ eyes: the cool connections with several other SM Entertainment artists’ comebacks.
When SuperM released “One” back in September, SHINee‘s Taemin was seen at the end of the music video holding a phone with a mysterious logo on it.
Then, in October, the end of NCT U‘s recent “Make a Wish (Birthday Song)” music video featured a surprisingly out of place scene: a subway cart filled with flowers. At first, fans thought it may be a hint towards a future NCT concept.
While both SuperM and NCT’s scenes didn’t make much sense at first, they all came together with the debut of SM Entertainment’s new girl group, aespa. The group’s very first video teaser revealed that the glyph seen in SuperM’s “One” was actually aespa’s logo.
Now, the release of aespa’s first title track “Black Mamba” has explained the scene in NCT U’s “Make a Wish”. The same subway cart appears in the “Black Mamba” music video.
And it doesn’t stop there. The “Black Mamba” music video has a unique connection of its own: a post-credits scene featuring one of the company’s biggest artists, soloist BoA. BoA is set to comeback with her 10th album, Better, on December 1.
A scene reminiscent of aepsa’s AI avatar concept also appeared in the recent “202020 BoA” video released in honor of BoA’s 20th anniversary since debut.
Fans think all these connections could be the start of the SM Culture Universe.
During a recent press summit, SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man himself introduced aespa as the first project in the SM Culture Universe (SMCU)—a shared world based on the company’s artists and concepts.
As the name suggests, the concept appears to be cased on Marvel‘s Cinematic Universe and DC Comics‘s Extended Universe. Both superhero-based brands have numerous characters, movies, television shows, books, and more which take place in the same shared world.
Likewise, it’s expected that the SM Culture Universe will link together SM Entertainment’s current and future artists. In his statement, Lee Soo Man went on to say that SMCU will express artists and music through storytelling content and is already set to include EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, and more. So, keep an eye on BoA’s upcoming music video for more SMCU hints!
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