PLEDIS Entertainment have announced that SEVENTEEN’s Vernon and The8 are the next members of the group to pair up for a unit project. Their first mini-abum, titled ‘V8’, is to be released 29 June 2026, and follows a chain of mini-albums combining the names of certain group members while others complete their compulsory military service.

The album, according to PLEDIS Entertainment’s Weverse statement, ‘is an album that showcases how THE 8 and VERNON channel the energy of their spent youth into a renewed drive, propelling themselves forward with even greater strength. Rather than defining spent youth as simply time that has been lost, the album captures the energy to move forward, transforming the instability and precariousness of youth into a surging sense of freedom.’

The announcement itself arrived in the form of a list of A-list musicians and producers, revealed in a reversed video of a burning piece of paper displaying their names. The list itself is mighty, especially for a mini-album, featuring familiar names from SEVENTEEN’s discography and the wider music industry: Pharrell Williams, SEVENTEEN’s producer BUMZU, and prominent South Korean electronic music producer Kirara. As expected, it also lists Vernon and The8 themselves.

This comes after weeks of promotions by the pair, and following an accidental reveal of the project by Vernon during a Weverse livestream. Guerrilla marketing techniques saw posters stating ‘V8’ and the pair’s names popping up in various areas of Seoul, South Korea, positioned as part of a ‘“V8HUNT” that suggested fans attempt to find them. The pair have also been seen across the social media pages of various K-pop groups, participating in dance challenges together. Additionally, promotion after the release itself includes a tour titled “2026 VERNON THE 8 [V8] LIVE” that will move through Seoul’s KINTEX Exhibition Center 1 in Goyang and Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo Hall 10 in July.

Previous releases in this series by other SEVENTEEN members include Jeonghan and Wonwoo’s ‘JxW’, Hoshi and Woozi’s ‘HxW’, and S.Coups and Mingyu’s CxM and Seungkwan and DK’s ‘DxS’ – all having been announced within the past two years. Crucially, as for the eligible members of previous unit releases, the V8 unit sets a countdown for the announcement of Vernon’s military enlistment.