“HELLO STRANGERS” had everyone talking even before it was released thanks to the collaboration between TOMORROW X TOGETHER and the creators of the Netflix series “Crime Scene Zero” and “Physical: 100.” The unique collaboration was born out of the intricate plots seen in Korea’s favorite variety show mystery series, “Crime Scene,” and the rich storyline that TOMORROW X TOGETHER has been developing over the past seven years. We sat down with project managers Yubin Hwang and Miseo Kwon from BIGHIT MUSIC’s Content Marketing Team, as well as HYBE Media Studio Production 1 Team producer Sua Lee, who oversaw direction, and “Crime Scene” writer Jeon Hyo-jin, who acted as lead writer for “HELLO STRANGERS,” to hear about how things unfolded behind the scenes.
This article contains spoilers for “HELLO STRANGERS.”
“HELLO STRANGERS” had a lot of buzz surrounding it even before its release thanks to working with the team behind hit shows like “Crime Scene” and “Physical: 100.” What was the push behind the partnership?
Yubin Hwang (BIGHIT MUSIC Content Marketing Team): Since “HELLO STRANGERS” ties in directly to the conceptual themes and lore of the fourth studio album, we went all out to create a fully immersive experience for MOA, which is also why we chose their preferred genre: mystery and suspense. We set out with a clear goal to have both a high-quality story and production value, and the HYBE Media Studio Team was a big help in bringing in experts in the field. When I heard we’d be working with the writers of “Crime Scene Zero” and the cinematographers of the Netflix series “Physical: 100,” I was so excited. (laughs)
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): They first reached out to me about working together when we were wrapping up filming on “Crime Scene Zero.” I’d worked with K-pop artists before when they appeared as guests on TV shows, but this was my first time creating something specifically to highlight a particular group for the sake of their fandom. I thought it would be fun, so I said yes right away. (laughs)
Can you talk about why “HELLO STRANGERS” incorporates not only the album “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” but bits and pieces of the group’s entire seven-year discography?
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): One of the writers who worked on the show has been doing “TO DO” for the past four years, and they talked about how TOMORROW X TOGETHER uses a lot of symbolism in their music videos and how fans really enjoy hunting down those symbols and analyzing them. Since “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” is a culmination of seven years of storytelling, we thought it would be special if we reflected that journey, and so we worked in references tailored to each of them from their music videos.
Sua Lee (HYBE Media Studio Production 1 Team): There’s symbols from the music videos tucked away all throughout the teaser for the first episode where we’re introducing each character’s role and their backstory. There’s some symbols that didn’t stand out as much as we had hoped. In the poster, HUENINGKAI is wearing arm warmers, and in the hospital background, there’s a broken mop. We wanted to use the intro to build tension and cast a light on the character of Hue Ganho, so in the end, the parts with those props got cut. Luckily, he still talked about them in the behind-the-scenes content. Even though they weren’t a clue for the mystery, they were an homage to “LO$ER=LO♡ER.” (laughs)
What specifically went into ensuring the group members could fully immerse themselves in their roles and the world of the show, given their lines were unscripted?
Sua Lee (HYBE Media Studio Production 1 Team): “HELLO STRANGERS” feels a lot like a scripted show, but the scenes we captured are real and unscripted. For that reason, it was shot more like a live show than a typical variety show. It would’ve pulled them out of it if we stopped in the middle of it to make adjustments, so to make sure not to break the mood, the crew would be in the background saying things like, “They’re here—get the security guard ready!” or, “It’s got to ring!” all while the group members stayed in character. To ensure everything would run smoothly without having to stop even briefly, the directors rehearsed and checked the camera work and movements five times each. (laughs) The whole thing felt like something out of a scripted show thanks to them keeping the cameras hidden and filming from a distance so the group members wouldn’t notice them and could just be natural and forget they were even being filmed.
Miseo Kwon (BIGHIT MUSIC Content Marketing Team): Because “HELLO STRANGERS” doesn’t follow a script, the story progressed differently depending on what the group members did. We were holding our breath, watching everything as it happened, but the writers created clear and concise role cards for them, and we were confident the group members would do a good job. “HELLO STRANGERS” came together thanks to the mutual trust between them and the crew. In fact, the group was so deep in the moment that sometimes they couldn’t remember everything they said while filming. (laughs)
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): A lot of work went in behind the scenes to making sure it was like their characters were dropped right into the situation so they would genuinely be surprised. (laughs) We emphasized right from the role card reading, “The most important thing here is to stay in character.” We even “kidnapped” them for real before filming. (laughs) When it was time to get to the set, they were each blindfolded and put into a van. We took away their phones right before filming, too. Then they were quietly laid down one by one in places like a playground or a supply room, leaving them completely unaware of their surroundings when they got up at the start. If you rewatch the show, you can see everyone looking around for TAEHYUN. (laughs) What’s amazing is that, even though there wasn’t a camera in the van, they all started sleuthing it out like excited kids—“Where are we going? We just turned right! We’re going uphill now!” It reminded me that they weren’t interested in the cameras and were just completely invested in the idea of the show. (laughs)
The show was intense since everyone other than Choi Hyeongsa was a suspect. What kind of information was included on the role cards that gave details on their characters and the backstory?
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): We limited the information we shared with the group so they wouldn’t know they could become suspects themselves. If “HELLO STRANGERS” were a jigsaw puzzle, then each member of the group was only given a single piece to look at. They could only know what the entire picture looked like once all the pieces were put in place. That’s why, when there were clues that started pointing to them as suspects, they genuinely got flustered. (laughs) One classic technique I use in mysteries is what I call “passing the suspicion baton.” Everyone has to be in the running as a suspect. It’s about leaving open the potential for everyone to be suspicious. The biggest focus was on figuring out who Mr. Choi the guard’s son is, and since three of the five of them all have the same surname, it made it easy to sow confusion in the investigation. We made it so that the members remembered that Park Nodap and Choi Taekbae had a nasty relationship and would naturally come to suspect Taekbae of being the son. To go a little into the characters’ backstories, as TAEHYUN says, Kang Dongjeon wasn’t just a sociable guy, but someone who got along with everyone because he went around the whole school playing games with everybody. (laughs) Choi Gwontu and Choi Taekbae were particularly close with each other due to growing up with limited means, and Hyeongsa helped Gwontu when the weight from the rumors about his father put him on the verge of going down a dark path. Hue Ganho came from an unprivileged home, like Taekbae and Gwontu, but he never let it show so nobody knew what was going on inside of him.
Gwontu was the mastermind behind the events that unfolded at the abandoned school, steering the others’ deductions while keeping a low profile. Could you give a detailed behind-the-scenes look as to why he set all that up?
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): Given that the nature of the show leaves some questions unanswered rather than wrapping all the details up perfectly, it felt a little unresolved for me, so I wanted to talk a bit about that. (laughs) Gwontu was certain his dad could never be the real culprit, and so, in order to find out who framed him, he had essentially masterminded a game of deduction. He hid Dongjeon by himself in the supply room. He left the bag full of drugs and syringes he got in his shady dealings with Ganho in the classroom where the others would easily find them. He did all of that because he figured he had to make the four of them suspicious and turn on each other so that the truth could come out. Also, the supply room is located near classroom 3-4, and the reason he had them move to that classroom was so they’d all see the items he placed there to trigger their memories and recount what happened six years earlier when the incident occurred. Another reason was because he already knew that his father would pass by the classroom around that time. Seeing Mr. Choi would prompt the other four to reflect on stories involving him. If you watch closely when Gwontu hears his dad, he’s the first to go check what’s happening and the first to run away from the classroom. We wanted to give a sense of where his mind’s at—that he doesn’t care if someone gets hurt by his axe-wielding father. What he’s really there for is to seek revenge.
One thing I saw a lot of people were specifically curious about was why Gwontu brought Dongjeon back to the guard office after knocking him out. (laughs) Gwontu still didn’t know who the culprit was, so he couldn’t completely rule Dongjeon out as a suspect. The whole plan was to stop Dongjeon from escaping by getting the key, dragging him back to the guard office, and escalating things by saying, “The guard attacked Dongjeon. Why is he coming after us?” But in the time it took to bring Dongjeon back, the other three had already discovered the pendant and uncovered Gwontu’s true identity. (laughs) Gwontu must’ve been completely flustered at that point. There’s no way he saw that coming. To sum up, Gwontu was trying to hide the fact that he had set the whole thing up while continuously sowing doubt among the group. His mission from there was to recreate a scenario where they would feel threatened by Mr. Choi and end up confessing the truth. At the same time, I think part of the reason Gwontu wanted to hear the truth from his friends was because he still had faith in them. But of course, there’s no way he ever could’ve seen everything to do with Mr. Kim coming.
“HELLO STRANGERS” seems to tie into “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” rather organically at many points, which makes sense since it’s ultimately promotional material for the album.
Yubin Hwang (BIGHIT MUSIC Content Marketing Team): Since it was for promoting “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” before it came out, we wanted to weave the album’s message of togetherness into it to build more anticipation for the fourth album and make it a show that would get MOA talking and speculating about the album. We debated at first whether to release it as a single video or to split it into parts, but decided to go with two episodes since it would fit our strategy of generating buzz. “HELLO STRANGERS” also has fun connections to the events and concept photos from during the “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” promotion period hidden all throughout. I’d recommend people give the show another watch and keep their eyes peeled for new discoveries. (laughs)
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): The key was figuring out how to incorporate the idea of togetherness from “The Star Chapter: TOGETHER” into the story. The word “together” immediately makes you think of a happy ending, but as you know, “HELLO STRANGERS” is a mystery show. (laughs) It’s easy for a happy ending on a mystery show to end up feeling cheesy or go overboard on the poetic justice, but we wanted to make a drama that was still realistic. I remember many late-night discussions with the other writers where we asked what togetherness means in the context of a mystery story. (laughs) The good vibes really came across in the final scene thanks to the group’s chemistry-filled improvised dialog. They could’ve just waited around until the comet fell, but instead, they chatted as if they were genuinely old classmates catching up with each other. That made the reconciliation feel really satisfying and made the emotional impact of the “together” message even stronger, in my opinion.
The blooper reel had a different vibe compared to the usual behind-the-scenes. What were you aiming to show through this bonus content?
Miseo Kwon (BIGHIT MUSIC Content Marketing Team): “HELLO STRANGERS” didn’t have a detailed script, meaning the group went in with nothing but an understanding of their own characters, so the whole thing, from the role card reading to the actual shoot, was entertaining for MOA in a way they weren’t used to with other behind-the-scenes content. When we first saw the rough cut, there weren’t any true outtakes, but we ended up cutting out the parts that felt too far removed from the main story. But then we compiled those clips together and it was a decent amount of footage, and we figured MOA would enjoy it, so we decided to release it as bonus content. (laughs)
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): Some people probably watched the outtakes and thought, “Is that all there is?” But because the group members managed to stay in character and keep it engaging the entire time, we basically got everything in one long take. There were only maybe two to three times where they broke character. We did initially worry about whether they’d be able to fully absorb the role cards, given how long they were, but they rendered those fears unfounded with how dedicated they were. I was deeply grateful for all their hard work.
How would you describe the results of the collaboration between “Crime Scene” writers and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and how did you feel about it personally?
Yubin Hwang, Miseo Kwon (BIGHIT MUSIC Content Marketing Team): Since our top priority is keeping MOA satisfied, seeing them dive into the mysteries of “HELLO STRANGERS” and enjoy it was incredibly rewarding. We were worried that the many twists and turns might make it difficult to follow, but seeing MOA analyze everything so clearly and discussing it together, it was like, “Leave it to MOA to be this good at analyzing things!” When news of the collaboration with the “Crime Scene” writers broke, fans of the show started watching “HELLO STRANGERS,” and there were comments from people saying they heard even people who aren’t fans of the group were getting into it. (laughs) “HELLO STRANGERS” was a huge project and an extra-meaningful accomplishment for both the HYBE Media Studio Team and the many contracted members of the film crew who poured their efforts into it to make the best show possible.
Sua Lee (HYBE Media Studio Production 1 Team): Since Jeon Hyo-jin is the writer behind the “Crime Scene” universe, we tied that in with the TOMORROW X TOGETHER universe to some degree. We’re especially grateful Hyo-jin helped us bring in TV show host Park Jiyoon, who’s appeared in every season of “Crime Scene,” for a special voice-over cameo to link the two universes. (laughs) HYBE Media Studio is always working on new content with TOMORROW X TOGETHER, so I want to thank everyone for their interest and their support.
Jeon Hyo-jin (writer): The show holds a special place in my heart because it feels like we’ve created a fresh, new genre that’s unique to TOMORROW X TOGETHER. It feels like something entirely different from “Crime Scene”—like a new brand, “MADE BY TOMORROW X TOGETHER.” I’m also delighted that we could give TOMORROW X TOGETHER such memorable alter egos for both them and their fans. (laughs) “Crime Scene Zero,” which I also worked on, is coming out September 23 on Netflix, and I’d be grateful if this collaboration brought fans over to that show as well. (laughs)