Ahead of the 2026 Anime Awards, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini told a reporter he was hopeful about Solo Leveling Season 3 but that there was still no official green light: "We are just as eager as the fans for the next show! We know the creators are actively working on it, so hopefully we can announce something soon," he said, adding later to the same outlet that there was "nothing to announce."
The statement lands against a clear blank space on the release calendar: more than one year has passed since Solo Leveling season 2 finished, and the franchise still has no confirmed follow-up. Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger after Sung Jinwoo defeated the Ant King, remained on Jeju Island to eliminate the ants left behind, reached the 100th level and used shadow extraction on the Ant King’s corpse, naming him Beru — but then powerful new monsters began to emerge.
The scale of the wait helps explain the reaction. Solo Leveling season 2 became arguably the biggest anime release of 2025, and fans have watched every public signal for signs of movement. Purini tried to soften the silence by recommending other shows to fill the gap — he named Demons of the Shadow Realm and Witch Hat Atelier — but emphasized that Crunchyroll has "nothing to announce."
On the creative side, the people who make the show have given similarly cautious encouragement. Atsushi Kaneko, appearing at Mumbai Comic Con last weekend, told the audience he had "a lot of plans for the future" and that he was "working very hard for it." A translator at the panel said Atsushi Kaneko is "working very hard on Solo Leveling and asked fans to give them a little bit of time," and added that "He will live up to everybody’s expectations and is working hard on it, but please give us a little bit of time." Those comments match Purini’s claim that the creators are active, but they stop short of a production or release timeline.
That gap between signs of life and an actual announcement is the story’s weight: creators say they are working, and both the production side and Crunchyroll publicly acknowledge activity, yet the company with the platform has "nothing to announce." The contradiction matters because the franchise’s momentum is high and fans are measuring every remark for meaning.
Context sharpens the stakes. Crunchyroll is the biggest streaming service in the world devoted to Japanese releases, so its choices shape international expectations and schedules. Other anime are not waiting: Shangri-La Frontier is already in production for a third season and was likely to be released in Fall 2025, a reminder that franchises with green lights move into production quickly while others remain in limbo.
The tension is practical. If the creators truly are "actively working," as Purini put it, the silence is a production-timeline gap rather than a rejection. But if weeks become months without a formal announcement, fans will read that silence as delay. Purini’s public suggestion that viewers watch other shows underscores how a platform hedges when it cannot promise a date.
So what should viewers expect next? Short answer: Solo Leveling Season 3 remains unconfirmed, but the most reliable signals available point to active development rather than abandonment. Purini’s two public lines — "We are just as eager as the fans for the next show! We know the creators are actively working on it, so hopefully we can announce something soon," and his admission of "nothing to announce" — paired with Kaneko’s vow of "a lot of plans for the future" and that he is "working very hard for it," make it reasonable to conclude a third season will be announced when the creators finish their current work; however, there is no basis in public facts to expect an immediate release date.
