July 30 Will Be a Great Day for Solo Leveling Fans

The Shadow Monarch is back with a new Solo Leveling release this July, just in time for his movie debut.

Via a new teaser trailer posted on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, Solo Leveling: Arise just announced that the true source of Sung Jinwoo’s power, the Shadow Monarch, is coming to the hit mobile game on July 30. The Shadow Monarch will be a Successor character in the game, providing support to Jinwoo while also being a playable character in his own right.

It’s no coincidence that Solo Leveling: Arise is choosing to include the Shadow Monarch in the game now; he’s also set to make his anime debut in the recently announced Solo Leveling: Beyond the System movie.

Solo Leveling’s New Shadow Monarch Successor Might Not Be Who Fans Think

While the trailer doesn’t specify it specifically, the “Shadow Monarch” being released in Solo Leveling: Arise’s upcoming update is very likely Ashborn, the first Shadow Monarch before Jinwoo took over the role.

Perhaps most interesting about this addition in Solo Leveling: Arise is that, if this new Shadow Monarch is indeed Ashborn, fans will finally learn more about his backstory. As Arise did with the release of its first Monarch Successor character, Myro, Netmarble will likely release an Arise Hunter Origin one-shot manhwa chapter about his past.

Ashborn has always been one of the most mysterious characters in Solo Leveling, so parsing through his origin will be a good way to build hype before he finally appears in the Solo Leveling: Beyond the System movie.

In the manhwa, the true Shadow Monarch is first revealed during the Double Dungeon Arc, when Jinwoo returns to the Cartenon Temple to confront the truth of the System. As alluded to in Beyond the System’s title, the film is expected to cover the Double Dungeon Arc, which was also teased in the short teaser trailer for the movie that came out at Anime Expo on July 3.

Solo Leveling: Arise’s addition of the Monarch Successors has been a fascinating decision due to how interconnected the Monarch Successors are to the sequel series, Solo Leveling: Ragnarok.

While Jinwoo was technically the successor of the Shadow Monarch in the original Solo Leveling storyline, the term “Successor” never showed up until Ragnarok, when Sung Suho was tasked with finding the Successors of the Monarchs that Jinwoo had killed during the 27-year war.

Given this history, it’s definitely possible the Shadow Monarch of Solo Leveling: Arise might not even be Ashborn at all, but could instead be an alternative Successor, similar to how Myro was initially the Demon Monarch’s successor before Esil took on the role.

There’s still a lot of mystery about this newly introduced Shadow Monarch Successor, making his release on July 30 a must-watch moment for Solo Leveling fans.

Solo Leveling: Beyond the System currently has no confirmed release date, though early reports have suggested a potential late 2027 release window. The Solo Leveling: Arise video game is available for download on iOS, Android and Steam PC.