Solo Leveling Is Coming to an Ice Rink This August

The global IP that racked up over 14.3 billion cumulative views across its webtoon, anime, and game adaptations is getting its most unexpected format yet: a full ice show. Solo Leveling on ICE returns for a second run this August, and the casting alone makes it worth paying attention to.

The lead role of Sung Jin-woo — the E-rank hunter who claws his way up to Shadow Monarch — goes to figure skater Cha Jun-hwan, the national team athlete known as the "Prince of Figure Skating." What makes this casting genuinely interesting is that Cha Jun-hwan isn't just skating through the role: he's delivering live dialogue and singing on mic, treating the whole arc as a musical performance. He also co-created the skating choreography alongside choreography director Kim Hae-jin, contributing ideas for how to physically embody the monsters, hunters, and power shifts in the original story. That level of creative involvement from the lead is not standard for ice shows.

Cha Jun-hwan described the difference between this and a typical gala performance: in a gala, a skater presents their own individual program; here, the character's growth and relationships drive every scene. He called the singing-plus-skating combination a "musical-style challenge" — the show is structured so that vocal sections and pure skating sections alternate, giving the audience both registers rather than blending them awkwardly.

Also in the cast: creator Amy, who has over 5 million TikTok followers and is known for a watermelon punch video that crossed 42 million views. Less obvious is that she spent 15 years as a competitive figure skater in the United States before pivoting to content creation — she's been off competitive ice for 11 years and describes returning to the stage as surreal. Former national team skater Lee Si-hyung, who appeared in the first run while still an active athlete, is back post-retirement and says the extra time has let him dig deeper into character interpretation.

On the production side, director Woo Jin-ha said the second run significantly expanded the figure skater roster compared to the premiere, with stronger skating choreography and ice-hockey-style linear action sequences added. Special effects include fire elements and aerial (in-air) staging — the kind of spectacle that reads very differently in a cold rink than on a flat stage.

The show runs August 7 through 17 at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul, with 12 total performances. Tickets are tiered: VIP at 135,000 won, VIP 2-person table at 270,000 won, R-seats at 120,000 won, and S-seats at 88,000 won. The cast and creative team made a public promise at the rehearsal preview: if the run sells out, they'll all do an ice bucket challenge together.

For the overseas fan flying into Seoul in August — this is the only large-scale ice show on the Korean cultural calendar this year, and it sits at a genuinely unusual intersection: a webtoon IP, a national-level athlete doing musical theater, and a viral content creator returning to competitive skating roots. It's not a concert, not a drama screening event, not a fan meet. The format is its own thing.

If you're already a Solo Leveling fan, the world-building translates well to the ice show format — the monster gates, the shadow army, the power-level progression all lend themselves to physical spectacle in a way that a stage musical might struggle with. If you're coming purely for Cha Jun-hwan, the choreography co-creation angle means this is genuinely his artistic vision on the ice, not just a celebrity casting.

The rehearsal preview was held July 22 at Zenith Ice Rink in Gocheok-dong, Seoul. The actual performances are at Mokdong Ice Rink — a different venue, so plan accordingly.