Actor Byeon Woo-seok is set to star in an upcoming Netflix series adaptation of the popular webtoon and web novel series “Solo Leveling” (2016-21), the streaming platform said Thursday.

Byeon will play the protagonist Sung Jin-woo, a struggling hunter who battles monsters to protect humanity.

“Solo Leveling” was first published on KakaoPage and has been cumulatively read over 14.3 billion times worldwide.

The franchise was later developed into an anime television series, which won nine accolades including the Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards this year.

It was also made into a Netmarble role-playing game, titled Solo Leveling: Arise, which has been played by tens of millions of users globally and won the grand prize at the 2024 Korea Game Awards.

A release date for the Netflix adaptation has not been revealed.

Byeon debuted as a model in 2010 and launched his acting career in 2016 with the tvN drama television series “Dear My Friends.” He took on his first lead role last year as Seon-jae in the tvN romantic comedy television series “Lovely Runner” (2024), which catapulted the actor into global stardom.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]