BTS: THE RETURN documentary reveals how the group almost rejected ‘Dynamite’ before it hit number one — and how history repeated itself with ‘SWIM’

The disagreement started by resurfacing “Dynamite” into the conversation. In the documentary BTS: THE RETURN, V was the most direct about his reservations. He described “SWIM” as pointing in the opposite direction from what the group had originally envisioned for the comeback. The track is mellow, romantic, and unhurried, qualities that felt misaligned with the scale of the moment they were returning to.

Jimin’s position was more nuanced. He liked the song personally, but raised the practical concern plainly: was something this understated really the right opening move after four years of silence? The expectation from fans and the industry alike was a statement, and “SWIM,” for all its quality, did not feel like a statement in the conventional sense. However, Suga was the one who shifted the conversation. Rather than debating the song itself, he pointed to history. They had been in this exact position before, he reminded the group, and they had been wrong: it was “Dynamite.”

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It was Jimin who then explicitly drew the parallel to “Dynamite,” somewhat pointedly. In 2020, more than half the members were against the release of “Dynamite,” yet the English track ultimately turned out to be the group’s first Billboard Hot 100 number one.

Jin confirmed the same history from his own vantage point. Even with “Dynamite,” he reflected, half of the group did not want to go through with it. RM landed where Suga did, but framed it around maturity rather than precedent. “SWIM” felt like where they actually were as people now, not where the market expected them to be. After years of military service and solo records, making something quieter and more personal was not a retreat. It was an honest answer to the question the comeback had always been asking.

To understand why the parallel mattered so much in that room, it helps to understand what “Dynamite” actually represented when it came out.

According to Billboard, “Dynamite” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making BTS the first all-South Korean act to top the chart, and the first Asian act to chart a number-one song in the United States since Kyu Sakamoto with “Sukiyaki” in 1963. It was proof that BTS’s instincts, even when the group itself was divided, could produce results that rewrote the rules of what was possible for a Korean act in the global market.

The irony is that the song was also, at its core, a risk. It was BTS’ first fully English-language single, a departure from the Korean-language identity that had defined their career.

Following ARIRANG’s release, “SWIM” held the number one position on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global for two consecutive days, with “Body to Body” sitting directly behind it at number two. Several other tracks from the album simultaneously entered the top ten.

The gamble paid off, again. And the conversation that almost talked them out of it is one of the most valuable things this documentary preserves, not because it shows BTS doubting themselves, but because it shows them using their own history to push through it. For a group that has been making music together for over a decade, knowing when to trust the track record over the nerves in the room is its own kind of skill.