Princess Mononoke nearly wasn't the film we know. Studio Ghibli has revealed that Hayao Miyazaki's original conception of the 1997 epic was completely different from the version that reached theaters, per CBR.

The studio also characterized the production as one of the most significant creative hurdles of Miyazaki's career — notable given a filmography that includes famously grueling productions. Mononoke's blend of hand-drawn spectacle, environmental themes and morally gray conflict pushed Ghibli to its limits at the time, and it ultimately became one of the studio's most iconic works and a breakthrough for Japanese animation internationally.

Stories of radical early drafts are a recurring theme in Ghibli history; Miyazaki is known for developing films through imageboards rather than locked scripts, letting stories transform dramatically in progress. That Mononoke went through such an overhaul fits the pattern — but hearing the studio frame it as a wholesale reinvention adds a new chapter to the lore around one of animation's most studied films.

Nearly three decades on, Mononoke remains a fixture of greatest-anime-film lists, and details like this keep fans digging back into how it was made.