Shortly after announcing their documentary/concert-style film, KATSEYE has now released the trailer, and it has fans talking. The trailer features glimpses of Manon, who is still on her controversial hiatus. Fans wonder what role Manon will play in the film, if she will be doing interviews, and whether the movie’s release will lead to Manon’s return.
The WILD HEARTS Trailer Release
The 55-second trailer opens with the group’s “PINKY UP” era, which began immediately after Manon’s hiatus. Throughout the trailer, we mostly see the five girls, who the fans refer to as OT5, with glimpses of Manon. The purpose of the movie is to highlight the unprecedented rise to fame of the global girl group.
Most of the performances featured in the trailer took place after the hiatus, except for some clips from one of the “GNARLY” video. At the end of the trailer, there are short clips of the active five members sitting in chairs, seemingly interview-style. Some fans are upset that Manon seems to be excluded from the film’s interviews, despite only being on hiatus since February.
The two working fan theories are that the movie will announce Manon’s official departure from the group or her official return. Even so, people seem unhappy that a movie is being released without any official information about her.
Manon’s Contentious Hiatus
In February, it was announced that Manon would be going on hiatus. The information was released on Weverse via the official KATSEYE account. “After open and thoughtful conversations together, we are sharing that Manon will be taking a temporary hiatus from group activities to focus on her health and wellbeing.” Despite these breaks being common in K-pop groups, this particular announcement caused division amongst the KATSEYE fans.
After the break was announced, Manon made a statement via Weverse DMs that she is okay and healthy. This seemingly contradicted HYBE X GEFFEN’s claim about her health.
In June, during an interview with Allure, Sophia Laforteza made a rare statement about the hiatus. “When I ask if Manon has any plans to rejoin the group, Sophia reiterates the hiatus messaging: “Because we did announce that it is about her well-being, it’s not our place or anybody else’s place to rush her,” she says. “We want to give her all the time that she needs, all the space that she needs, and so we don’t want to make any assumptions, set anything in stone… She really deserves that and the door is always open.”
In a later interview with Vanity Fair, Sophia also addressed rumors that racism played a role in Manon’s break. “As young women of color, they’ve all experienced varying degrees of racism online. “We can definitely say that in our situation, in no way was it about race,” says Laforteza, sitting up straight. “That goes against everything that we stand for.”
Another member of KATSEYE, Lara Raj, also said that within the group, “the safest space that we had was within the six of us.”
KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS will be in select theaters on August 12th.
