EXCLUSIVE: Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini has talked about hopes for more Solo Leveling and given the latest on the new Demon Slayer trilogy of movies and Ghost of Tsushima, the upcoming anime series based on the PlayStation game of the same name.
Solo Leveling has popped on Crunchyroll, the anime SVOD service that has over 15M subs. It was the Sony-owned service’s most popular show through 2024. Season 2 dropped in January, becoming Crunchyroll’s top series in the first quarter of 2025. Fans are clamoring for more.
Purini attributes the success of the series to the strength of the source IP — it was already a popular manhwa (Korean comic) — as well as the quality of the visuals and production. A-1 Pictures animated the series and Shunsuke Nakashige directed.
Noting that most anime fans are also gamers, Purini went on to pinpoint another reason he thinks the series has resonated so strongly. “The most important thing is the theme of the story, it has lot of themes from gaming. If you are an RPG player, or play first-person-shooting games, you understand it. When people see those themes in a narrative story format like this, it is new and it is different, and it is a language they speak and that makes it much more compelling.”
Given the success is Season 3 coming? “We hope so,” Purini said when asked about a third outing. “The [series] creators want to work on lot of shows. Anime is really popular, so there’s a lot of demand, and so we have to find the right time to get started on the next season.”
Ghost Of Tsushima & Demon Slayer
Purini said the success of Solo Leveling is shaping Crunchyroll’s wider programming strategy, highlighting Ghost of Tsushima, the upcoming project based on the Sucker Punch-produced PlayStation videogame about a Samurai warrior.
“It definitely makes us want to take more experiments. Ghost of Tsushima is an example. It is a game IP that we know gaming fans love, and that’s one of the reasons we want to bring it to anime; to see if we can recreate that same phenomenon.”
Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Sony Music and PlayStation Productions have teamed for the series, which is slated to bow in 2027.
The Sony family connections also reveal themselves in the new Demon Slayer movies. Sony is releasing Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle in U.S. theaters in September. Hopes are high for Haruo Sotozaki’s adaptation of the Koyoharu Gotouge story after previous Demon Slayers notched strong openings. 2021’s Mugen Train debuted to $21.2 million and 2023’s Swordsmith Village opened to $10.1M.
“The trilogy movies are the final arc of the story and, for fans, if they want to finish it, they have to watch it,” Purini said. Asked about the following chapters he added: “The production teams have not announced the exact release date, but they will be fairly evenly placed right after the first movie.”
The post Crunchyroll President On Hopes For ‘Solo Leveling’ Season 3, ‘Ghost Of Tsushima’ & New ‘Demon Slayer’ Movies appeared first on Deadline.
