Crunchyroll’s Next ‘Solo Leveling’ Is Officially Coming in 2027

Published Sep 18, 2026, 11:52 AM EDT

Michael Hein has been covering entertainment, fandom news, and trending topics since 2016 on outlets including Rogues Portal, PopCulture.com, and ComicBook.com. He has provided live coverage of red carpet premieres, conventions, and up-fronts, and has interviewed major stars including Charles Dance, Patrick Stewart, and Chloe Sevigny. An avid fiction reader and writer, Michael has been diving deep into all the biggest book-to-screen adaptations of the last decade, from Game of Thrones to Foundation.

Solo Leveling took over the anime fandom over the last two years, and the industry is still trying to catch up. In the meantime, Crunchyroll just announced a new series that checks many of the same boxes, and may be the next sensation. SSS-Class Revival Hunters premieres in January of 2027, and it's not hard to see why Crunchyroll is bringing the story to our homes. Not only is it another primary-world fantasy with medieval aesthetics, it's another adaptation of a South Korean web novel. If the series succeed, it may signal a new trend for the anime industry as a whole.

SSS-Class Revival Hunter is set in a world similar to our own, except for "The Tower" — a massive structure that is somehow visible on the horizon from anywhere on earth. At first, it's unclear how or when The Tower was built, but it is crawling with monsters and it attracts bold adventurers to seek fame and glory there. Those inside The Tower have a video game-like interface to track their statuses and achievements, and they typically pick up powerful swords and other weapons on their quests. The story begins with Kim Gong-ja watching The Tower on TV and envying the star players when he receives a mysterious S-class skill of his own.

'SSS-Class Revival Hunter' Follows the 'Solo Leveling' Blueprint

To fans of Solo Leveling, this gamified fantasy setup probably sounds familiar. The two series have similar backgrounds behind the scenes as well. Solo Leveling began as a web novel — or, "light novel" — written by Chugong and published on KakaoPage starting in the summer of 2016. SSS-Class Revival Hunter is a web novel series written by Sinnoa and published on Munpia starting in the fall of 2018. As both series grew in popularity, both were adapted into webtoon comics, and then eventually into anime.

It's no surprise that two stories with similar genres flourished in the same medium around the same time in Korea, nor that both were adapted into comics as their success grew. Now that both have traveled overseas for their TV adaptations, it looks like an international pathway to success is opening up that may bear more fruit in the years to come. That's not to say that every Korean fantasy story is a copycat, but rather that two entertainment industries have finally found a successful formula for collaboration. That these stories are resonating with fans all over the world is a triumph of translation.

International success is clearly what the companies behind this adaptation are hoping for. SSS-Class Revival Hunter is already available to read in English, and according to Crunchyroll the series will stream all over the world in various languages. Right now, there's no word on whether the show will get an English-language dub, but last week's teaser trailer came with English subtitles readily available. The show stars Takeo Ōtsuka as Kim Gong-ja and Satoshi Hino as The Sword Emperor. It was produced by Studio fu with Hiroaki Sakurai as director, Sayuri Ōba as writer, and Takahiro Yoshimatsu as character designer.

'SSS-Class Revival Hunter' Will Need to Stand Out

Image via Crunchyroll

As comparisons to Solo Leveling are inevitable, SSS-Class Revival Hunter will need to find a way to stand out as it kicks off. This is a delicate balance for any popular show, but SSS-Class Revival Hunter seems up to the task. The series has a fun, unique setting with the contradictory sense that it's confined and bound by rules, yet anything could happen at any time. It should do well with anime fans who are currently caught up in the Dungeon Crawler Carl craze with its game-like interface and oversight system.

The show's strongest hook will be its protagonist, Kim Gong-ja. When the story begins, he is depressed to the point of hardly functioning, consumed by envy and addicted to social media. The S-rank skill that pulls him into The Tower looks more like a curse at first — it allows him to copy skills from other hunters, but only if he dies. Kim-Gong-ja manages to put this seemingly useless ability to great use throughout the series, giving us a success story unlike any other for the modern age.

That's not the only thing that will set this series apart, but it's a strong start to get the story going. SSS-Class Revival Hunter premieres in January of 2027 on Crunchryoll. The comic is available in English now via Tapas.

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  Taito Ban

  Sung Jin-woo

• Genta Nakamura

  Yoo Jin-ho

In a world of gifted hunters and monsters, a weak hunter Sung Jinwoo gains extraordinary powers through a mysterious program, leading him to become one of the strongest hunters and conquering even the strongest dungeons.