Xdinary Heroes after Gun-il: What his departure means for the band

For almost five years now, Xdinary Heroes has been defining its uniqueness based on a concept that separates it from many other K-pop groups: the members are not mere singers performing in a band. They are the band itself. Founded by JYP Entertainment via its studio of singer-songwriters and bands known as Studio J, Xdinary Heroes made their debut on Dec. 6, 2021, through the digital single titled Happy Death Day. The six-member unit originally included Gun-il as the drummer and leader, Jungsu as keyboardist and vocalist, Gaon as guitarist and vocalist, O.de as synthesizer, Jun Han as guitarist, and Jooyeon as bassist and vocalist. This fact is important when discussing what Xdinary Heroes have lost with the departure of Gun-il.

The unit holds an interesting position within JYP’s roster. Coming after DAY6, Xdinary Heroes was the second band-oriented act of JYP, although Studio J made a conscious effort not to label them as an idol band in the traditional sense. Musically, they have switched between genres such as rock, hard rock, metal, metalcore, synth-rock, pop, and aspects of K-pop production. Rather than specializing in any particular genre, the group members have mentioned that experimenting is a characteristic feature of their work. This makes it insufficient to label the unit as “JYP’s rock band”. The group has utilized the structures and aesthetics of K-pop but focused on songwriting and performances.

In fact, even the title of the group itself bears this philosophy. The group’s name is called “Xdinary Heroes”, which comes from “Extraordinary Heroes”, whereas the slogan “WE ARE ALL HEROES” was always part of their philosophy from the start. Initially, the philosophy behind the group’s mythology was built upon the concept of the real world and virtual world, where each character faces some sort of internal struggle. However, this mythology has changed greatly since 2021. It all began as a well-designed story but eventually moved on to being about the artists themselves.

The evolutionary process is clearly visible through their debut track, Happy Death Day, which makes use of an expression of happiness and transforms it into something that is purposely uncomfortable. This is because the track is based on the contradiction between external happiness and the internal resentfulness or hypocrisy of the individuals. As much as this is the case, another important thing about the members of the band is the fact that their participation in the music making process began when they started working on the song. Jungsu and Gaon wrote and composed the song, while the members recorded the instrumentals.

As seen from the previous works of the band, such as Hello, world! and Overload, this particular identity started to take form even more strongly. In the case of Overload, all six members took part in writing and creating the music for the album, while the story of the band included the elements of heroes, villains, and struggle between them. The next work that was released by the band was Deadlock in 2023, and it took the notion of identity to a new level through posing questions about those very identities that the band created. Instead of presenting the audience with the idea of heroes and villains, this album focused on the idea of freedom from such labels.

Their musical journey took a parallel track. According to Jooyeon's interview with Billboard Philippines for about LXVE TO DEATH in 2025, the group decided that they wanted to keep on trying out various genres and having fun making music. This project used music elements from various genres such as emo and metalcore up to synth rock and breakbeat. Instead of creating a new genre each time, the members just aimed at making a certain genre sound like Xdinary Heroes through their interpretation of the music. That's what makes it significant because the identity of the group isn't its unique sound but the members themselves.

Their participation in the writing and composing of songs cannot, thus, be described merely as a promotional aspect. It is one of the building blocks of the band. Throughout their career, all six members received credit in projects like Overload and Deadlock, and in all interviews conducted, they have stressed that while writing a song is one important thing, performing it is another equally important aspect of the work. There can be no gap between a writer of a song and the performer of it for Xdinary Heroes.

One major change was with LIVE and FALL in 2024 where the band started to veer away from the cyber and virtual worlds which were present in previous concepts. They mentioned that the concept was a point where their characters left the virtual world and met each other in reality. Musically, the musicians also experimented with a new ratio of metal and K-pop in addition to opening themselves up to rock music. Concept was slowly becoming a means rather than an end in itself.

The trend has been followed by the release of Beautiful Mind in March 2025, their sixth mini-album, and its titular song Beautiful Life. As usual, all the six members took part in the creation of the album. In the same year, the group has reached a major international breakthrough, having performed at the Lollapalooza Chicago. Interviewed by Rolling Stone Korea after the performance, the members mentioned that the Lollapalooza stage was one of those that they have dreamed to perform on since their debut. Gaon in particular wished that people left the concert realizing that the members can really play rock music. This statement has made it clear that Xdinary Heroes see themselves as a band that can stand on a huge stage independently of its image as idols.

With the arrival of LXVE TO DEATH in October 2025 and the eighth mini-album DEAD AND in April 2026, Xdinary Heroes were already far from being just a newly-debuted act. The band has managed to create a solid discography, build their style and increase their global presence. LXVE TO DEATH offered a view on love without the romanticism that usually accompanies it but rather on its contradictory and even dangerous aspects. On the other hand, DEAD AND examined the concept of ending as the possibility for a new beginning. This concept becomes quite ironic considering what transition the group is now facing.

The change started Aug. 11, 2026, when a woman posted on the internet, claiming that she had been in a romantic relationship with Gun-il. However, the nature of their relationship was made clear in Gun-il’s later statement where he admitted that they met each other through an acquaintance and had dated each other for around two weeks. The woman posted the private chat exchanges as well as an audio tape of her conversation with him, which were her pieces of evidence. It was at this early stage that the identity of the man speaking in the audio tape had not been verified. Yonhap news agency reported on Aug. 13 that it was still unable to verify the voice as Gun-il’s voice.

The allegations, meanwhile, mostly concerned his personal remarks towards fans, his behavior, and, according to the leaked materials, members of the group. The leaked recording became the key part of the scandal due to the fact that the speaker used very offensive words in regards to people referred to as fans and made the comment concerning his desire to hit them. Nevertheless, it is still important to draw the line between a mere allegation found on the Internet and an independent fact.

The difference between the two has appeared due to the fact that Gun-il himself provided a reaction to the situation. In his statement, which appeared on Aug. 13 for fans, he claimed that the voice on the recording was his and that he said some inappropriate things about fans. He apologized for the words he said but did not deny the fact that he recorded. At the same time, he denied the claim that his statements were aimed at the Xdinary Heroes fandom as a whole.

Based on the claims made by Gun-il, his comments seemed to be directed towards people he thought were malicious or intrusive and not towards fans who supported them. These included what he called multiple violations of his privacy in which he accused the fans called "sasaengs" in Korea of intruding on the lives of celebrities. According to Gun-il, the group had experienced severe violations of privacy issues during the early part of the year, including the intrusion into their home as well as installation of a tracker on his personal car.

It is necessary to highlight the difference here. JYP Entertainment had already issued notices earlier in 2026 about the violation of privacy concerning the members of Xdinary Heroes, thus privacy violations against the group were known prior to the claim made by Gun-il. It does not mean, however, that all of the claims that Gun-il made in regard to those people are true simply because of those notifications.

Gun-il related the events leading up to the concert held by Xdinary Heroes at Inspire Arena in June as well. In particular, he explained that after the show he came across numerous malicious comments on the Internet that had upset him emotionally. As the group leader and its oldest member, he felt he didn’t want to trouble the rest of the group or their manager with his troubles, which is why he told the matter to someone he had just recently become acquainted with, using extremely inappropriate language in the process.

However, despite all that, Gun-il stated that the situation did not in any way relieve him of the blame for what he had said. In his apology, Gun-il took the blame for his words explicitly, stating that no matter what else may be taken into account, he was responsible for what he had said. Also, it should be noted that the fact that this discussion was taped and became public did not absolve him of the responsibility for what was said either. Thus, in Gun-il’s reply, we can discern two distinct stances.

The claims made against other band members need to be taken with the same amount of caution. Some material on the internet served as an evidence of Gun-il's frustration with certain band members. In his response to the claim, Gun-il never said that he had never been frustrated due to close interaction with other people. On the contrary, he admitted the existence of such feelings but insisted that he genuinely cares about all the members and supports them. He referred to them as to people he is proud of and denied the interpretation of his frustration as the sign of lack of respect.

On Aug. 13, JYP Entertainment made a decision which changed everything for the group. Gun-il leaves Xdinary Heroes and his exclusive contract with the agency gets dissolved on mutual terms. The agency noted that the severity of the situation had been taken into account and many talks had been held with the artist before the decision was made that he can no longer stay in the group. Xdinary Heroes will be carrying out its activities as a five-member band.

The wording of the statement by JYP is important specifically for the things that it fails to mention. The agency didn’t give out a public clarification on all the allegations made online or on how the events unfolded to make such a decision. They failed to characterize the behavior of Gun-il in any legal way. What the agency mentioned was that the matter was serious enough for the members to continue their activities without him. It would therefore be wrong to state that JYP “confirmed all of the allegations". What JYP confirmed was the professional result: Gun-il leaving, contract termination by mutual agreement, and the continuation of Xdinary Heroes as a five-man group.

The comment made by Gun-il himself gives another insight into this separation. Gun-il accepted the apology and explained the situation in which the statement was made. However, at the same time, he explained that he wished to stay with the group and keep all six members, but had to accept the decision of the company. Thus, the statement of the singer does not cancel the scandal, but shows his personal view on the situation.

It would be difficult to say much about the remaining five members of the group. Up until now, there have been no separate comments from Jungsu, Gaon, O.de, Jun Han and Jooyeon that would enable us to state the position of the five members with certainty. Therefore, it would be unreasonable to consider any statements, social network activity, rumors, silence as the views of these people. Officially, it is only possible to note that Xdinary Heroes continues working as a five-member group.

This is where the impact on their schedule happened. On Aug. 13, Summer Sonic stated that due to the statement made by the band’s agency, Xdinary Heroes withdrew from its show at the Pacific Stage in Tokyo on Aug. 14 and from its show at the Massive Stage in Osaka on Aug. 16. They had both concerts canceled. This did not stop there. The next day, JYP announced that due to the controversy Xdinary Heroes’ third fan meeting, THE X-TOWN, which was supposed to happen from Sept. 18 to 20 in Seoul, was canceled.

Those developments give a much more accurate representation of the effects of the incident compared to just the volume of discussion regarding it online. Within days, a band that had taken years to build a reputation and image through the musical six-member formation had to pull out of major events at Japanese festivals and cancel a planned event for their fans. Moreover, JYP’s response shows that the agency plans on having the remaining five members continue working rather than put the band in an indefinite hiatus. The situation therefore goes far beyond a mere departure of one of the members; it marks the start of a new way of managing Xdinary Heroes.

The reaction of the fans has been difficult to quantify. Various reactions have been seen online, from disappointment with Gun-il and his words to sympathy towards the circumstances in which he was speaking and concern for the future of the band. Yet it cannot be said based on the reactions on social media who is in the majority of the fandom. The only thing that can be concluded is that JYP understands the problem and has reacted with concern to it and cancelled THE X-TOWN.

What follows is consequently far more important than attempting to guess what every fan will think about the dispute. In leaving the band, Gun-il has stripped Xdinary Heroes of their founding drummer and leader, an essential member in a band whose sound was based on the members performing their instrumentals. Therefore, the decision does not come down to symbolism alone. It forces Xdinary Heroes to figure out how they can perform live, structure themselves internally and arrange their music without one of the core members who helped them found the band.

Nonetheless, it would be hasty to say that with the departure of Gun-il, all that Xdinary Heroes have accomplished thus far is undone. The remaining five members have managed to amass a considerable number of songs, an interesting writing style and an identity as performers that took them from performing in Korea to festivals in other countries. The philosophy that has evolved within Xdinary Heroes over the last almost five years of being together is certainly not suddenly gone; it is only the setup that has changed.

That is what essentially makes the departure of Gun-il so crucial to Xdinary Heroes. It is because of the scandal caused by Gun-il’s statements that the group finds itself in this situation, yet it should not be defined solely by this event. Xdinary Heroes is the group of six artists, who aimed to experiment with music, write songs and show their skills on stage. However, after Aug. 13, 2026, this story involves five people.

The departure of Gun-il also means the end of one more important period in the life of this artist. In his last statement, Gun-il apologizes to the fans of the band, and says that he is sorry to leave, as he will not be able to follow through the band’s dreams. Nevertheless, this departure does not answer all the questions that arise in connection with the scandal, nor does his statement confirm all the information that Gun-il provided previously. Nevertheless, it gives him a chance to tell his own story.

Therefore, the best approach towards the situation is neither as an easy narrative of innocence vs. guilt, nor as a scandal with its value determined by how shocking the scandal could become. The facts here are that Gun-il said what is said in the video, he apologized for what he said, JYP broke up the exclusive contract with him, and Xdinary Heroes will keep going as five. Other aspects need to be left as interpretations and claims that have to be attributed rather than stated as facts – keeping such distinctions is crucial not just for understanding the situation, but also for honoring everyone involved.

In fact, Xdinary Heroes is now facing a challenge very different from those that it was investigating in its songs since 2021. The group is already well-known for experimenting with the notions of fixed identity, moving away from its initial fictional world and exploring what a band can be within the K-pop industry. However, their next step will not be related to any new concept or genre. Xdinary Heroes will move on as five musicians who have to deal with a drastic change in their original lineup.