Can Red Velvet survive without their leader Irene? Netizens believe so.

According to a report by Koreaboo, the possibility of Red Velvet continuing as a four-member group recently became a trending topic after Irene's attitude scandal.

Irene serves an important position in Red Velvet as a leader, main visual, and center so fans believe that Irene's possible departure to protect other members could create a major impact.

It can be recalled that Irene's attitude scandal was met with mixed reactions. While there were fans who supported Irene for stepping up and admitting her fault, there were also those who wanted her out of the group immediately.

After Irene's apology, many other artists voiced out similar incidents of her bad behavior. She was even accused of bullying a former trainee of SM Entertainment, SCMP reported.

As Irene's anomaly continues to snowball, netizens expressed openness to supporting Red Velvet even with just four members. They posted edited photos of the group with Irene cropped out.

Many netizens commented that Red Velvet can survive without Irene because they are all visual members. Some said that any one of Wendy, Seulgi, Joy, and Yeri could serve as the visual of any group. They also highlighted that even without their leader, the four members were very close and could get along with each other very well.

Fans also raised concern for Red Velvet after SM announced plans to launch a new girl group named aespa. Reveluvs said that they hope SM Entertainment would continue to support Red Velvet even with the heavy promotion for the rookie girl group. Fans also appealed to fellow Reveluvs not to abandon the group during this challenging time. It can be recalled that SM is starting to release teasers for aespa.

In an interview at the 2020 World Cultural Industry Forum, SM CEO Lee Soo Man said that the unique concept for aespa is that it is a hybrid group composed of real artists and avatars. These members will reportedly interact through the digital world. The backstory of aespa, according to Lee Soo Man, is that the avatars who existed in their own world will finally meet real-world members, reported Soompi.

According to SM Entertainment, they will initially debut four real-life members of aespa, including Winter, Karina, Chinese member NingNing and Japanese member Aeri. Additional members from the digital world will be unveiled with new stories, All Kpop reported.