Mark Lee Leaves NCT: Inside the Exit, What Happens Next, and the “7-Member Curse” Fans Keep Talking About
On April 3, 2026, SM Entertainment confirmed that Mark Lee — one of NCT’s most recognizable members since its 2016 debut — would be leaving the group entirely, with his exclusive contract set to conclude on April 8.
The announcement, posted to Weverse, framed the decision as mutual, arriving after what the agency described as a long period of discussion about Mark’s future direction.
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The statement made clear this wasn’t a partial step back. Mark’s exit covered every unit he’d been part of, including NCT 127 and NCT Dream, the two subgroups where he’d built most of his visibility over the past ten years.
SM thanked him for his “outstanding abilities” both as a group member and solo artist, language that read less like a corporate formality and more like an acknowledgment of how central he’d been to NCT’s identity.
Mark addressed the exit himself in a letter posted to his personal Instagram, telling fans he’d “never forget” their support and describing what comes next as a new chapter he was choosing deliberately, not stumbling into.
He’d debuted at 16 in 2016 and grown up almost entirely inside the group system — NCT U, NCT 127, and NCT Dream all at once, a workload most K-pop trainees never take on.
By the time his contract ended, he was 26, and the departure closed out one of the longest continuous runs of any member in the group.
The timing added an extra layer for fans: NCT Dream had just wrapped their world tour in Seoul days earlier, meaning that tour — retroactively — was Mark’s last with the group, though nobody watching in the crowd knew it at the time.
Mark Wasn’t the Only One Walking Out That Week
Three days after Mark’s announcement, on April 6, SM confirmed that fellow member Ten had also concluded his exclusive contract, effective the same date: April 8. But the two exits weren’t identical, and that distinction matters for anyone trying to understand where NCT stands now.
Where Mark’s departure was total — no more NCT 127, no more NCT Dream, no more NCT U — Ten’s was closer to a renegotiation.
SM stated it would work to coordinate his continued participation in WayV and NCT group activities going forward, meaning he left the company as an exclusive artist without fully leaving the group project.
It’s a structure K-pop watchers have seen more of in recent years: an idol builds a career on their own terms while staying loosely tethered to the group brand for scheduling-dependent appearances.
Having two contract conclusions land in the same week naturally set off speculation about who might be next. Timelines about other members’ contract windows — Johnny’s, Yuta’s, Winwin’s, Haechan’s — circulated among fans almost immediately, with some outlets reporting anxiety over whether NCT Dream specifically could shrink further.
So What Actually Happened to NCT Next?
This is usually the part of the story that stays open-ended for months. In NCT’s case, it didn’t.
By mid-July 2026, SM Entertainment confirmed that all seven remaining members of NCT 127 — Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, and Haechan — had renewed their contracts, calling it a decision built on the group’s trust in each other.
Weeks later, all six members of NCT Dream did the same, re-signing based on what the agency described as their affection for the team.
The practical result: no further exits, and a group that used the disruption as a launchpad rather than a slow fade. NCT 127 followed the renewal with a concrete release calendar — a seventh full-length album, Blingy, arriving August 24, 2026, and a new tour, “NEO CITY: THE REDLINE,” opening with three Seoul shows September 18–20 before heading out across Asia.
Reviews since have described the group leaning into the disruption directly, with lyrics and visuals referencing their own number and identity rather than dodging the subject.
That’s a notably clean resolution for a story that started with two departures in one week. For NCT 127 specifically, seven became the number they built an era around instead of the number fans worried about.
Fans Are Already Calling It the “7-Member Curse”
Almost as soon as NCT 127’s post-Mark lineup settled at seven members, the exit got folded into a much older piece of fan lore: the “7-member curse,” a running theory that groups debuting with seven members are somehow fated to eventually drop to six.
It’s not a new idea, and NCT is far from the first group fans have pointed to — the pattern gets cited across more than a decade of K-pop lineups.
Is there anything to it, or is it just a coincidence that gets noticed more than it gets disproven? We broke that down in a separate deep dive — including why seven became K-pop’s go-to debut number in the first place, and the groups that have gone a decade without losing anyone.
Where NCT Stands Now
Nearly six months out from Mark’s exit, the group that seemed to be in an uncertain moment back in April has settled into a clearer shape: NCT 127 at seven members with a new album and tour, NCT Dream at six with contracts locked in, and Ten continuing to appear in NCT and WayV activities despite no longer being under SM’s exclusive contract.
Mark, for his part, has not detailed specific next steps publicly, though his farewell letter framed the move as the start of an independent chapter rather than a retirement from music.
For a story that started with an abrupt, emotional exit, NCT’s response has been almost the opposite of chaotic — renewal, a comeback, and a tour announcement, all within a few months.
Whether the “curse” talk fades along with the initial shock, or resurfaces the next time a seven-member group loses someone, is really the only open question left.