Netflix’s Solo Leveling Live-Action Taps Lovely Runner Star Byeon Woo-seok For Lead Role (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Netflix is leveling up big time with this one. The streaming giant confirmed that Byeon Woo-seok will headline the forthcoming live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling. The Korean heartthrob, fresh off his swoon-worthy stint in Lovely Runner, is trading in romance for ruthless battles and mysterious dungeons.
With the original web novel already a beast in the digital fiction world, and the anime adaptation breaking records in 2025, this new chapter is gearing up to slice straight into global screens.
Netflix Casts Byeon Woo-seok in Solo Leveling Adaptation
You can’t talk about global webtoon takeovers without mentioning Solo Leveling. What started as a humble Korean web novel by Chugong quickly snowballed into a digital behemoth, thanks to its pulse-racing plot and the hauntingly good artwork by the late Jang Sung-rak, aka Dubu. Published on KakaoPage and Tapas, the story racked up over 14.3 billion views and established itself as one of the most consumed web IPs on the planet.
Now, Netflix is ready to reimagine this universe in live-action form, with Byeon Woo-seok wielding the lead role of Sung Jin-woo. For the uninitiated, Jin-woo isn’t your classic fantasy hero. He starts off as a bottom-tier, E-rank Hunter, widely dismissed as the weakest link in a society where dungeon raids are a 9-to-5. But after barely surviving a brutal double dungeon, he gets granted access to a mysterious System that allows him to “level up” endlessly.
As Jin-woo grows stronger, his battles stretch beyond basic monsters. Woo-seok’s manhwa-worthy visuals and dramatic chops (see: 20th Century Girl and Lovely Runner) make him the perfect candidate for a character this complex.
wooseok choosing Solo Leveling as his next project is such a bold and challenging move. it’s an adaptation, which means the weight of expectations, the pressure, the comparisons, the global eyes are all there. but he confidently said “challenge accepted!” 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KrcqJwWTKP
Co-directors Lee Hae-jun with Kim Byung-seo are helming the project. Credits like Ashfall, Castaway on the Moon, and Cold Eyes prove they know how to mix visual tension with emotional depth. Production is backed by SANAI PICTURES and Kakao Entertainment, with help from a global VFX team to make sure those dungeon sequences don’t look like a bad video game cutscene.
And if you’re wondering why Netflix is betting so hard on this title, the numbers speak volumes. The anime version, which dropped in early 2024, went on to sweep nine major trophies at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, including Best Action and Anime of the Year.
Not bad for a story that started out as a web novel sitting on a digital bookshelf. There’s no confirmed drop date yet, but the buzz already feels seismic. With Netflix’s recent hits like The Glory and Sweet Home proving there’s serious international demand for Korean genre storytelling, Solo Leveling could be the next title to dominate global timelines, and Woo-seok might just be the guy to shadow-step it into pop culture history.
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