Recently, the Crunchyroll Anime Expo took place. And at the expo, it was revealed who the original Jujutsu Kaisen protagonist was supposed to be, before the manga artist settled on Yuji Itadori.
Jujutsu Kaisen recently held an exhibition where a lot of behind the scenes information was revealed to fans of the manga and show. Not only were some characters fates almost sealed with commentary by manga artist and creator Gege Akutami, but there was also some interesting new information regarding the characters.
One of the biggest things revealed, as we are nearing the end of Jujutsu Kaisen, is that Yuji Itadori was not meant to be the lead role from the beginning. That honor was supposed to be bestowed upon someone else originally.
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Initial Protagonist Was Someone Other Than Yuji Itadori
Jujutsu Kaisen is a story filled with interesting and unique characters. While Yuji Itadori is the main protagonist without a doubt, there have been a multitude of characters that have stolen the spotlight off him. Obviously, with there being so many high grade sorcerer's in the cast, right?
Gege Akutami, the creator of the manga, also recently revealed that initially Yuji had been nothing more than a background character. He was going to support the actual main protagonist, who was none other than Megumi Fushiguro.
As per a translation by Twitter/X user Lightningclare, Megumi was meant to be the main character of Jujutsu Kaisen. Not only that, but his sister Tsumiki was also woven into the plot, with her making an appearance in the first chapter as well.
When Gege read through the manuscript, he thought that the idea was boring and scrapped it, bringing Yuji to the forefront. Initially Yuji was, as mentioned, just a side character who supported Megumi, with a weak relation to Sukuna in some way.
Yuta, who was the main character from JJK0, the prequel one-shot, was also removed from the plot in the beginning to simplify the story. Satoru Gojo stayed in the story, though, since he is the main mentor of the story, and it wouldn't have made sense to remove him from Jujutsu Kaisen 1.
But could you have imagined a story where Yuji is a mere background character, while Megumi gets all the glory? I wonder how the story would have played out and how Sukuna was going to be involved in the whole plot...