3 Years Later, Solo Leveling Completely Retcons Its Original Ending

Published Nov 10, 2026, 7:31 PM EST

Merlyn De Souza is a freelance writer and anime enthusiast based in Goa, India, with a Bachelor's in English Literature. When she isn't writing, she can be found exploring various realms of entertainment, including, but not limited to, K-dramas, novels, and even the occasional manhwa. She also enjoys all things creative, like sewing and makeup.

Even years after the end of the original manhwa and Jinwoo's journey, Solo Leveling has found continued success through its new sequel, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, which recently returned from hiatus. While fans and even Chugong, the franchise's original creator, may sometimes be in disagreement about Ragnarok's canonicity, the fact of the matter remains that the series is a massive hit three seasons in and shows no signs of slowing down.

Sung Suho's journey has been addictive in its own right so far, even in the absence of familiar fan favorites like Jinwoo and Cha Hae-in. That said, while Solo Leveling: Ragnarok has stayed in its own lane for the most part, its newest chapters just completely recontextualized Solo Leveling's original ending, and fans may never be able to see it the same ever again.

Solo Leveling: Ragnarok Puts A Dark Spin On The Series' Original Ending

Solo Leveling: Ragnarok recently kicked off a new season with a batch release of three chapters all at once. The series has kicked off with a bang, finally bringing back Cha Hae-in as well as explaining her mysterious disappearance. For reasons unknown until now, Cha Hae-in had been missing since before the start of Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, and the explanation connects right back to Solo Leveling's original epilogue.

Chapter #69 of Solo Leveling: Ragnarok takes readers back to a flashback from Chapter 200 of the original series and Solo Leveling's romantic epilogue ending, wherein Jinwoo and Cha Hae-in were last seen riding into the sunset on Kasiel. In the original epilogue, Jinwoo and Hae-in celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary, with Jinwoo giving Hae-in a necklace and telling her to head home first while he headed into a new battle.

Jinwoo promised to be right behind her at the time, but as revealed by Hae-in herself in the latest chapters of Solo Leveling: Ragnarok, this was the last time the two saw each other. While Jinwoo would head off to fight the Itarim, Hae-in would go on to fall into a gate and get trapped within the dungeon, therefore explaining her whereabouts so far.

Thus, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok turns what was originally a sweet, wholesome ending to Solo Leveling into quite a bittersweet moment, documenting the last time Jinwoo and Hae-in would see each other for years, though neither they nor readers could have known it at the time.

Solo Leveling's Sequel Officially Beats The Spin-Off Allegations

Looking back, Solo Leveling's epilogue was clearly meant to pave the way for Solo Leveling: Ragnarok all along, so it's technically no surprise that the latter ties in with the original series so well. At the same time, however, tie-ins like these also further legitimize Ragnarok as a true sequel to Solo Leveling.

In the midst of ongoing fan debates on the matter, Chugong, Solo Leveling's original creator, recently added to the confusion by dubbing Ragnarok a "spin-off created for fan service" on the Korean forum DCinside. It's unclear if Solo Leveling will ever get another sequel or spin-off written by Chugong himself. But in all the ways that matter, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok is currently the perfect sequel that branches out perfectly from the original series in terms of its timeline, lore, world-building, and character arcs.

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  Taito Ban

  Sung Jin-woo

• Genta Nakamura

  Yoo Jin-ho

Solo Leveling follows Sung Jin-woo, the world's weakest hunter, who gains extraordinary powers through a mysterious program after surviving a brutal monster attack. As he navigates his newfound abilities, Jinwoo embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of his powers and the dungeon that altered his fate.