The protagonist isn't Sun Wukong. He's the Six-Eared Macaque.
The "Another Monkey?" - line seems to hint that there is another super-powerful monkey running around. If the game is leaning on the original books, this could be an early hint that this "Wukong" isn't who we think he is, or a reference to the Six-Eared Macaque, Wukong's Evil Doppelgänger in the original Journey to the West. In that story, the macaque impersonated Wukong so successfully, that not even celestial beings could tell them apart and was only defeated when the Buddha himself stepped in and forced him to reveal his true form.If the protagonist is Macaque and not Wukong, it would explain why he appears to be alone in the trailer and the gameplay demo, with none of the other pilgrims anywhere in sight, and why he seems to be Walking the Earth in a rather decrepit state instead of living the good life in heaven or on Flower-Fruit Mountain.
- Even if he isn't specifically the Six-Eared Macaque, it is established in the source material that there are four spiritual primates that fall outside of the ten categories of mortal and immortal life in the cosmos: 1) the intelligent stone monkey (Sun Wukong); 2) the red-buttocked baboon; 3) the bare-armed gibbon; and 4) the six-eared macaque. He's at least one of the three, as the first gameplay trailer shows what appears to be the actual Son Wukong as the Victorious Fighting Buddha.
The protagonist is a clone of Sun Wukong that was left behind
- The Six-Eared Macaque is a popular theory for the Protagonist’s identity, but if this follows the events of the source material, then Wukong would’ve killed him in front of the Buddha, proving that he is definitely dead and not faking it. However, Sun Wukong also has the ability to clone himself using strands of his hair, so it’s possible that one of these clones was left behind and forgotten during the original journey and now has to find his own redemption. That having been said, the clone lacks a tightening fillet, so it would’ve had to have been created before he met Xuanzang.
The protagonist is Sun Wukong's abandoned mortal flesh
- When Wukong achieved godhood, he abandoned his mortal flesh. Since Wukong the Monkey King was born from the sky and earth through a sentient stone, this mortal carcass he left behind retained a lot of life, also the sins during his mortal life. Hence, the name of the game "Black Myth"
The groom in the 6-minute cutscene trailer is the protagonist
The cutscene never lets us see what the groom looks like, but we're given plenty of clues that it might be the protagonist (who in turn might or might not be Wukong). The groom seems to be pretty small, as when we see his surroundings through his eyes he has to look up at the daughters. The daughters also comment that he doesn't look like much and that they find him to be ugly. While not necessarily "ugly" the protagonist isn't what one would call conventionally attractive and every scene of him we've seen so far has him looking like a dirty vagabond. The daughters seem pretty superficial, so it makes sense that they'd find him unattractive based on that. One of the daughters also comments that they had trouble catching him and had to use some kind of magical item of their mother's because he's such a formidable warrior. The protagonist in the trailers and demos has seemingly all the powers Sun Wukong has and is a pretty strong martial artist, so that description would fit him.