A BTS member says he lost his sense of who the group even was anymore, and the new Netflix doc reveals just how far the pressure pushed them

BTS members are speaking honestly about the intense pressure and long work hours they face in the K-pop industry in their new Netflix documentary, BTS: The Return. The seven-member group (Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook) are not holding back in the film. Some members even said they felt like they were “committing a crime” if they asked for a break.

According to Page Six, RM, the group’s leader, shared that he started making music to say something to the world, but being in the K-pop system means “constant output, so we gotta keep moving.” He admitted, “I lost my sense of who we are as a team,” and said that asking for a break felt “like I’m committing a crime.” Jung Kook echoed this, saying that while he just wants to have fun making music, it often feels like they are “kind of operating like a factory.”

The documentary follows the band’s reunion in Los Angeles in August 2025 to work on their new album, Arirang, which was released on March 20. This is their first album together since Be in 2020, and comes after their hiatus in June 2022 for South Korea’s mandatory military service. J-Hope said they “hauled ass” to record the album because they wanted to avoid a long break after being discharged from service.

BTS is proving that even the world’s biggest pop group is not immune to burnout and self-doubt

RM admitted he was “freaked out” about returning to the K-pop world, especially with how fast trends change and new artists appear. “Nowadays, everything changes all the time,” he said. Meanwhile, Suga expressed surprise that the group is still at the top more than a decade after their debut in June 2013. “I used to think it would end eventually,” he shared, adding that he occasionally still thinks, “I’ll probably have to stop if my body can’t keep up.”

Jung Kook also opened up about their level of fame, admitting that “when I look at myself, I really don’t think I’m that special.” He said there is a part of him that “just wants to be seen as a singer and nothing else.” RM summed it up by saying, “We get to wear this big, incredible crown. At times, the crown is heavy, almost unbearably, and it’s scary to wear.”

Unlike many K-pop acts, BTS holds a significant amount of creative control over their music. Even so, they still have to follow the industry’s “comeback” cycle, which involves new music, big performances, and long promotion periods. 

Netflix has been expanding its entertainment slate aggressively, and a major new streaming deal worth $72 billion could reshape how content like this gets distributed. Jin noted that the group used to experience “a lot of suffering” during their creative process, but things have changed. “Now, if a song doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, and we just move on,” he said. “We don’t feel the same desperation that we used to.”

Recording Arirang after nearly six years away was not easy. Netflix is also bringing other major Asian pop-culture properties to its platform, including a live-action Demon Slayer series that has fans curious.