Since debut, SM Entertainment has created four subgroups for Super Junior. Every member was put into different subgroups excluding Kibum, due to his busy acting schedule. The intentions of the subgroups were part of SM's strategy to not limit Super Junior's activities,[16] and the goal was to show that the group could accommodate different musical genres. However, this strategy was later challenged by critics, as it has influenced an overwhelming amount of music groups to create official and unofficial subgroups alike.[17] SM announced that Super Junior will form more subgroups in the future, and possible focuses of these subgroups include a variety of genres such as rock and hip hop.[18] Previous Super Junior subgroups will also return to the industry along with appearances of new subgroups.[18]
