Solo Leveling Season 2 won Best Action and Best Animation at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and on July 3, 2026 Crunchyroll, Aniplex and D&C Media announced a new film, Solo Leveling: Beyond the System, with A-1 Pictures animating. As of November 2026, no release date and no third TV season have been announced.
Image: Anime Corner
What has happened since Season 2
The film was revealed during Anime Expo 2026, almost a year and a half after the Season 2 finale. Anime Corner lists Tao Tajima as director and Tomoko Sudo as character designer and key animator, with Atsushi Kaneko as animation producer. A teaser visual and a concept video were shown at the event.
Earlier in 2026, at the tenth Crunchyroll Anime Awards held on May 23 in Tokyo, Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- took Best Action and Best Animation, according to Time Out Asia and Interaksyon. ComicBook noted that the series had picked up these awards in the same week it reported that no Season 3 had been confirmed.
Background
The story began as the web novel Only I Level Up by Chugong, serialized on KakaoPage from 2016. Anime Corner says Solo Leveling was the most watched anime on Crunchyroll in 2024 and became the platform's most viewed anime of all time in June 2025. Season 2 first appeared inside the cinema release Solo Leveling: ReAwakening, which recapped Season 1 and added the first two Season 2 episodes.
What it means
The original version of this article asked why the show dominated 2025. The awards answer part of that, but the film announcement says more about the business side: a studio, a publisher and a streamer are putting money into a theatrical project rather than simply ordering another TV run. That suggests the franchise is valued for its global audience, not just its Japanese ratings.
What we do not know is how the film fits with the story. Some outlets describe it as a continuation of Season 2, but we could not confirm that from the production side, so we leave it as unverified. Likewise, claims about a 2027 or 2028 Season 3 window come from secondary sites and are not backed by an official statement we could find.
Sources
- Anime Corner, "Solo Leveling: Beyond the System New Anime Film Announced", July 3, 2026: link
- Time Out Asia, "My Hero Academia wins Anime of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards" (full winners list), June 1, 2026: link
- Interaksyon, "My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON wins Anime of the Year at 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards", May 28, 2026: link
- ComicBook.com, "Solo Leveling Studio Reveals Exciting New Update Ahead of Season 3", May 2026: link
