Solo Leveling's Movie Could Be The Genre Change The Franchise Needs

Custom Image by Casandra Ronning Published Jul 19, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT Casandra Ronning is a staff writer for Screen Rant's anime section. Since mid-2024, she has dedicated herself to expanding her knowledge and experience in the entertainment industry. She is most proud of conducting an exclusive interview with popular voice actor Stephanie Nadolny. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Solo Leveling became known for its fast-paced action and stunning visuals, earning it a reputation as a must-watch modern power fantasy. The series has since broken multiple records on Crunchyroll and built an even larger fan base than its original web novel and manhwa, making it one of the most anticipated anime to return in recent years. After months of speculation, a feature film has finally been announced, and its potential is far more promising than most audiences realize. Some of Solo Leveling’s greatest moments stem from the story’s willingness to explore darker elements. Since the beginning of the series, Solo Leveling has repeatedly leaned into psychological tension and gruesome violence in ways that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. While the story has never shied away from these aspects, it never fully leaned into the genuine dread or horror that should come along with many of these scenes, leaving behind an overlooked opportunity that the upcoming film could take full advantage of. Solo Leveling Is at Its Best When It Embraces Its Darker Elements As a power fantasy, Solo Leveling has everything fans could want, from an underdog protagonist who quickly rises through the ranks to ever-escalating stakes and opponents for Jinwoo to face off against. Paired with its rapid pacing and eye-catching animation, the series has understandably grown to become a massive global success, but it’s arguably its darkest elements that made the series as memorable as it is. From the opening scenes, the anime made it clear that the world was not a gentle one, and Jinwoo, as the weakest hunter, often bore the brunt of those dangers. Then, during the Double Dungeon Incident, the series made it explicitly clear that the story would be full of bloody battles as well as challenges that are not only terrifying but inescapable. This was repeatedly proven not just by dungeon monsters, but by other Hunters who kill their own temps for hire, or by the System itself forcing Jinwoo to compete with whatever objective he is given. These moments are often used to expand the story’s world and characters, making them thrilling plot points, especially as Jinwoo grows to become the Shadow Monarch, further distancing himself from his own humanity. Yet the series never fully embraces the cost of many of these moments, instead opting to briefly dwell on the incidents, if at all, before quickly shifting to the next major action sequence. However, it’s exactly these moments that give Solo Leveling its greatest potential. If the series leans into the horror aspects of the story, it could make the stakes feel heavier while also adding greater weight to Jinwoo’s rise to power. Most importantly, this shift doesn’t need to detract from the action or power fantasy elements whatsoever, as the horror themes are already present in the story, just under-explored. If Solo Leveling’s next installments choose to embrace this direction, it could very well grow into something far greater than it already is. Solo Leveling’s Movie Can Lean Into What Made the Series Thrilling Solo Leveling’s next major release was announced during Anime Expo 2026 and is confirmed to follow immediately after the events of Season 2. It is already a major milestone for the franchise and carries significant potential on its own. However, rather than simply following the series’ current formula of hyper-fixating on Jinwoo’s power progression, the movie has the chance to expand and develop the source material’s stronger focus on lore and character development. From E-Rank Hunter to Shadow Monarch · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Solo Leveling? “Arise.” 💻The SystemQuest update 👑Shadow MonarchArise ⚔Hunter AssociationS-Rank ascension 👈Gate DungeonsDouble dungeon 👾IgrisKnight of the Shadow ACCEPT THE QUEST → 01 Solo Leveling’s protagonist is a Korean E-Rank hunter widely mocked at the start of the series as “the world’s weakest” — before a near-death experience in a double dungeon transforms him into the Player. Name him (Korean original). ACha Hae-In BSung Jinwoo CYoo Jinho DBaek Yoonho ✓ Correct! Sung Jinwoo — the “world’s weakest hunter” who supports his ailing mother and younger sister Jinah on D-Rank gate raids until a near-fatal raid in the Cartenon Temple double dungeon makes him the Player. The Japanese-localised anime adaptation renames him Shun Mizushino, but the original Korean novel/webtoon name is Sung Jinwoo. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Sung Jinwoo. Cha Hae-In is the South Korean Hunter Association vice-guildmaster and S-Rank swordswoman (and Jinwoo’s eventual love interest). Yoo Jinho is his loyal best-friend chaebol-heir teammate. Baek Yoonho is the White Tiger Guild’s S-Rank guildmaster. The protagonist is Sung Jinwoo. NEXT → 02 Solo Leveling didn’t start as Japanese manga or anime. It originated in 2016 as a Korean web novel on KakaoPage, was adapted into a colourful vertical-scrolling webtoon (drawn by Jang Sung-rak / Dubu) and only later became an A-1 Pictures anime in 2024. What term describes its native Korean comic format? AManhwa / Webtoon BManhua CDoujinshi DManga ✓ Correct! Manhwa — Korean comics — specifically a webtoon, the vertical-scroll, full-colour mobile-first format dominated by KakaoPage and Naver. Solo Leveling’s webtoon adaptation began in 2018 and concluded in 2021; its breakout success internationally helped establish the broader “Korean tower-climber/hunter LitRPG” pipeline that now feeds shows like Tower of God, The Beginning After the End and Eleceed. ✗ Wrong. The answer is manhwa (webtoon). Manhua is the Chinese equivalent. Doujinshi is Japanese fan-comic self-publishing. Manga is the Japanese term. Solo Leveling is Korean — manhwa, specifically a vertical-scroll webtoon adaptation of a 2016 web novel. NEXT → 03 The original Solo Leveling web novel ran from 2016 to 2018 on KakaoPage and was written under a single mononymous pen name. The author is famously private, with very little known about him — but he’s widely credited with single-handedly resetting global expectations for what Korean web fiction could be. Name him. AChugong BSIU CTurtleMe DSingshong ✓ Correct! Chugong (추공) — a deliberately mononymous Korean web novelist whose real identity has never been publicly confirmed. His original 2016–18 novel ran 270 chapters and was translated into English, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish via KakaoPage’s international expansion. The webtoon adaptation by Jang Sung-rak (better known as Dubu) was the version that broke through globally; Dubu’s death from cerebral hemorrhage in 2022 was a high-profile loss for the medium. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Chugong. SIU is the creator of Tower of God. TurtleMe is the author of The Beginning After the End. Singshong is the author of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. The Solo Leveling novel is Chugong’s. NEXT → 04 In Solo Leveling’s world, mysterious gates have appeared on Earth and only awakened “hunters” can enter the dungeons inside them. Hunters are evaluated by the Korean Hunter Association on a letter-grade scale from the lowest to the strongest. What rank does Sung Jinwoo start with, before becoming the Player? AF-Rank BE-Rank CD-Rank DUnranked ✓ Correct! E-Rank — the lowest assigned tier in the Hunter Association’s grading scale (E-D-C-B-A-S, with S as the absolute peak). At E-Rank, Jinwoo barely earns more from a raid than the medical bills the raid produces, which is why he keeps going on dungeon runs despite being the “world’s weakest hunter”: he’s funding his mother’s medical care and his sister Jinah’s tuition. The Player System fast-tracks him from E-Rank to S-Rank-and-beyond over the course of the series. ✗ Wrong. The answer is E-Rank. F-Rank doesn’t exist in Solo Leveling’s scale (E is the lowest). D-Rank is one tier up — where Jinwoo’s teammate Yoo Jinho sits. “Unranked” isn’t a category. Jinwoo starts the series as an E-Rank, the bottom of the recognised ladder. NEXT → 05 After the Cartenon Temple double-dungeon massacre, Jinwoo wakes up in a hospital and begins seeing a personal RPG-style HUD that nobody else can see — daily quests, stat windows, level-ups, Notices written in glowing blue text. The franchise calls Jinwoo’s unique designation what? AThe Player BThe Awakened CThe Vessel DThe Heir ✓ Correct! The Player. Sung Jinwoo is the only individual in his world who has access to the System — the personal RPG-style interface offering quests, stat allocations and level-ups. Late in the series it’s revealed that the System was given to him by the Architect (a tool of the Rulers) specifically to forge him into a vessel for the dying Shadow Monarch Ashborn. Becoming the Player is the prelude to becoming the new Shadow Monarch. ✗ Wrong. The answer is the Player. “The Awakened” is the general term for any human with hunter abilities — not unique to Jinwoo. “The Vessel” and “The Heir” aren’t official labels. Jinwoo’s unique status as the System’s sole user is named the Player. NEXT → 06 The Solo Leveling anime adaptation premiered in January 2024 to record streaming numbers on Crunchyroll — the most-watched debut in the platform’s history. The animation studio is the same Aniplex-affiliated house behind Sword Art Online, 86 and Lycoris Recoil. Name it. AMAPPA BStudio Bind CA-1 Pictures DMadhouse ✓ Correct! A-1 Pictures — the Aniplex-owned studio behind Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail (later seasons), 86, Lycoris Recoil, KonoSuba (S1–2), Kaguya-sama and 7 Deadly Sins. Director Shunsuke Nakashige and a Hiroyuki Sawano-led score made the action centerpieces (the Cartenon Temple double dungeon, the Igris fight, the S-Rank arena duel) some of the most-discussed sequences of any 2024 anime. ✗ Wrong. The answer is A-1 Pictures. MAPPA does Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. Studio Bind does Mushoku Tensei. Madhouse did the original Hunter x Hunter (1999) and One Punch Man S1. A-1 Pictures is the SAO/Lycoris-Recoil studio that adapted Solo Leveling. NEXT → 07 As Jinwoo levels up he unlocks the Shadow Extraction skill, which lets him raise the corpses of defeated foes as loyal shadow soldiers. The first major shadow soldier he raises — a red-armored knight extracted from the Job Change dungeon Knight Captain — becomes one of his signature fighters. Name him. AIron BBeru CIgris DTank ✓ Correct! Igris (sometimes Igrit) — the Knight Captain Jinwoo defeats and raises during the Job Change quest. Igris is one of the highest-ranked named shadows in Jinwoo’s army (an Elite Knight tier) and personally serves as his bodyguard during the Jeju Island arc and the Monarchs War. Other named shadow soldiers in the army include Iron (orc warrior), Tank (steel-fanged Lycan), Tusk (Lycan mage), Beru (Ant King) and Bellion (the Grand Marshal). ✗ Wrong. The answer is Igris. Iron is the orc warrior raised from the Demon Castle quest. Beru is the Ant King raised at the end of the Jeju Island arc — one of the most powerful shadows. Tank is the Lycan from the same arc. The first major named shadow knight Jinwoo extracts is Igris. NEXT → 08 Late in the series, the System reveals that Jinwoo isn’t merely the Player — he’s the chosen successor of the dying ninth Monarch of the Shadows, who sided with the Rulers against the other eight Monarchs. Jinwoo inherits his title and his power. Name this previous Shadow Monarch whose mantle Jinwoo takes up. AAntares BAshborn CBellion DQuerehsha ✓ Correct! Ashborn, the Monarch of Shadows. He betrayed his fellow Monarchs of Destruction in the ancient war and aligned with the Rulers, but at the cost of being mortally crippled. Working with the Rulers’ tool the Architect, he engineered the System over centuries to find a worthy human vessel — ultimately Sung Jinwoo — to inherit his throne. By the series’ end, Jinwoo wields the full power of the Shadow Monarch and uses it to rewrite the timeline. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Ashborn. Antares is the Monarch of Destruction (the King of Dragons) and the series’ final-fight antagonist. Bellion is Ashborn’s Grand Marshal — one of Jinwoo’s strongest shadows but not a Monarch. Querehsha is the Monarch of Plagues. Jinwoo’s predecessor as Shadow Monarch is Ashborn. REVEAL MY RATING → System Notification · Final Tally Your Hunter Standing 👑 / 8 Shadow Monarch — or still E-Rank? ⤴ LEVEL UP AGAIN In doing so, the film can also explore the atmosphere and consequences of Jinwoo’s god-like rise to power as well as the cost of the battles themselves. Allowing for a greater focus on these elements would add to the story’s tension and characters in ways that feed audience investment by adding depth and complexity to the narrative. This could, in turn, make each victory all the more impressive and meaningful, creating incredibly satisfying payoffs that go beyond mere power-fantasy fulfillment. By allowing the horror themes to have a larger place in the story, the enemies would feel more threatening, the stakes more immediate, and Jinwoo himself would feel much more thrilling and fascinating instead of strictly coming across as impressive. Given that Solo Leveling already has a strong foundation, its movie has the greatest opportunity to expand on the darkest aspects of its story to make it even more compelling and turn it into the definitive representation of the series. Release Date 2024 - 2025-00-00 Network Tokyo MX, Gunma TV, BS11, Tochigi TV Directors Tatsuya Sasaki, Toru Hamasaki Cast Genta Nakamura Yoo Jin-ho Writers Shigeru Murakoshi, Shingo Irie, Fuka Ishii Creator(s) Chugong