Solo Leveling English Dub Jinwoo Star Aleks Le talks about -ReAwakening- and Season 2

Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- opens in theaters across North America this weekend with its December 6th release, and we caught up with voice acting superstar Aleks Le to talk about his work as Sung Jinwoo in the series. With Solo leveling As the anime series’ biggest new hit for winter 2024, and the feature film recaps the first season with a preview of the first two episodes of the second season, the anime caps off a banner year for the actor. We’re really excited for fans to see Jinwoo continue his evolution as a necromancer-turned-shadow monarch with what lies ahead.

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Fans will soon be able to watch either the English subtitled or dubbed version of Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- In theaters, ComicBook recently had the opportunity to chat with Aleks Le about the successful manhwa adaptation thanks to Crunchyroll. We were able to talk about his prolific resume, his cats Miso and Bean, and most of all, the wealth of amazing experiences he has had and created in the recording booth beforehand Solo leveling Season 2.

ComicBook: After regaining your voice after a recent strain on duty while preparing Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- Come this weekend, how have you been since then?

Aleks Le: I’m doing well. Normally I don’t expect it to be this busy this time of year, but it turns out that everything is happening this winter season, which is exciting for me and anime fans alike because there are so many good things out there and for me It is a great honor for me that the film is coming to cinemas. It’s super cool because I’ve never had the opportunity to participate in a winter event like this before, so it’s a nice opportunity to watch a movie with my friends.

You started the year with Solo leveling Winter 2024 is the event release of the year, and now you can close out the year with it too.

That’s correct; It’s been a crazy year. It feels like it’s been longer than a year, that’s for sure.

Especially with Jinwoo, what challenges do you think you encountered while playing the role?

I think the first season had a lot of challenges because you have to prepare a lot for the first season, so we had to overcome a lot of different hurdles. Caitlin Glass is the ADR director and it was our first collaboration. We had to find a way to work together that wasn’t challenging. We had to find a way to work together, we got along well, she’s a really creative and great director. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than my partner.

There are a lot of challenges. We had to establish the tone of the show and Jinwoo’s diverse voice transitions, but one of the biggest challenges I had with the show and not many others was that I actually had the privilege of doing a lot of the dialogue for Jinwoo’s show, like writing and crafting. We worked on a really great ADR script from our talented ADR writer, but Caitlin actually gave me the freedom to change, improvise and heavily edit many of the Jinwoo-specific moments because she wanted the performance to be so natural and authentic was to help me as best as possible, for which I was very grateful.

A lot of the speeches that you hear on the show, a lot of the dialogue and his one-liners, I was really lucky to get the chance to write those myself. It’s a different feeling because when you’re performing you’re like, “Oh, that’s my voice!” But it was a different feeling when I wrote that and now I’m going to say it on the show. It’s a really cool process.

It is all the more exciting to be involved in the project as much as possible. You mentioned the changing voices for Jinwoo as he continues to evolve into the Necromancer and even larger classes, and how that even sounds in the movie. What can fans expect from the Giga Chad screen ahead of the film and season two?

First of all, it’s a lot easier for me to get into something like that than to praise him, because the challenge with casting a younger, more innocent-sounding voice is that it’s just so hard when you’re so jaded – I’m kidding – but the challenge is that there’s a fine line between a natural, young voice and an anime-like young voice, and we wanted the show to sound as natural as possible. For me it takes a while to get used to the perfect pitch, and then I also have to say certain words so that they don’t sound too cartoony when I’m in my higher register. The situation we’re in right now is pleasant and I’m very happy with how our work is coming out because he has some cool moments where his voice is even deeper and has something shadowy about it. There are lore-related reasons for this that we can get into later, but for now it’s cool to give the audience a taste of where we’re going with this.

Given Solo levelingThe webtoon of is cited with over 14 billion views, which brings more attention to webtoons and manhwa. Have you watched any other series that you would recommend?

I used to read a lot. I was reading so much manhwa and manga back then about four years ago, but it was really hard to find the time to really sit down and devote myself to certain series. I read a lot of manhwa back then, but these days I’ve noticed that a lot of them have been localized by publications with different names than the ones I know. I’ve read a lot of action series that were really cool, but until recently I was never particularly drawn to the fantasy genre. But back then it was a lot more action, street fight series like that. It’s a well-made medium and I’m very happy to see it becoming more successful through anime adaptations and being enjoyed across the board.

Like rather unknown favorites like Swordmaster on the roof compared to larger ones like Omniscient reader or Jungle juice.

OhI’ve heard about that.

How much have you read or known? Solo leveling before I get the part?

Before I got the thing I knew quite a bit about it. I knew where the story was going from the first four or so volumes, but I didn’t read any deeper. I have a friend who is a big fan of it, so most of my knowledge came from him and his enthusiasm for it. I knew it was going to be a big deal because every voice actor around me was telling me, “This is the next big thing!” This and that, but as an actor who auditions for a lot of roles, and I regularly don’t audition for many either, I get a lot of roles, I can’t get too attached to these things. When everyone hypes it up, I have to say, “Oh, that’s cool!” I’ve seen all the promos Solo leveling at the Crunchyroll booth and at Anime Expo, but in my head I wasn’t thinking, “I need this character.” I hoped for the best for the show and walked by. At least that’s an actor’s business.

With what we know Solo leveling Going into season two, do you have any particular favorite characters?

I’m glad they’re showing more of Cha Hae-in. It’s a personal favorite and I love its design. I find her behavior and interaction with everyone around her hilarious. I’m happy for her and I love Michelle Rojas who plays her, so I’m really excited that she’s getting her time on screen. I’ve seen some of their stills from the trailers and they don’t hold back. They’re doing their best to animate her because she looks amazing in these shots, I love it.

Who is your favorite Shadow so far?

Oh, until now? Of the ones we have, I have to say that I still really love Igris in future Shadows, based on the design alone. His introduction was super cool and very memorable for me. Even though there are many more cool Shadows to come, it feels like an OG to me.

For lucky fans who come in to see it Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- Do you have a special message for viewers of the English dub at the cinema this weekend?

Thank you for your support! I’ve noticed that this show has taken off quite a bit, at least in dubbing viewers, and that means a lot because we put in a lot of effort. It makes me really happy to see so many people getting excited about dubbing. In general, I hope everyone who watches the film, be it subtitled or dubbed, enjoy it, because from what I saw, I only saw a good part of it, it looks really good. I hope the theater experience will enrich it and make it an unforgettable experience for all of you.

You can follow Aleks’ work on his X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Instagram accounts for the latest updates.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact JR directly at X.

Solo Leveling -ReAwakening- hits theaters in North America on December 6th.