The second season of Mnet's audition program "Boys Planet" is set to launch next year, running simultaneously in two versions, Korean and Chinese, CJ ENM announced on Tuesday.

"The program will be based on a multiverse concept, allowing for limitless expansion," said the program’s chief producer Kim Shin-young.

Dubbed "Boys II Planet," the show comes two years since the first season.

The nine finalists of the first season — Zhang Hao, Sung Han-bin, Seok Matthew, Ricky, Park Gun-wook, Kim Tae-rae, Kim Gyu-vin, Kim Ji-woong and Han Yu-jin — debuted as ZeroBaseOne in 2023 and are on their first world tour, which kicked off on Sept. 20 in Seoul.


"We've chosen China, with its massive population of 1.5 billion, as the first step in this global journey," Kim said.

Zhang Hao, the winner of the first season, is from China.

"We hope to discover numerous talented artists of diverse nationalities and watch as the two final groups, formed from the same universe but different programs, come together and create synergy."

Applications for auditions opened on Friday and will remain open until Jan. 1 next year. Male applicants born before Jan. 1, 2012, regardless of nationality, are eligible to apply for either the Korean or Chinese version. Participants who previously applied for the preaudition project "Planet B" in August do not need to reapply.

Cable channel Mnet has aired many popular audition shows, and the temporary project K-pop groups formed through the shows have seen great commercial success. Most notably, the four seasons of the “Produce” franchise — from “Produce 101” in 2016 to “Produce X 101” in 2019 — created girl groups I.O.I and IZ*ONE, and boy bands Wanna One and X1.

YOON SEUNG-JIN [yoon.seungjin@joongang.co.kr]