Lucas Miller let out a long, weary sigh as he looked at the entrance of the UCLA multimedia lab. It was currently besieged by a mob of nearly two hundred students.
This time, he was well and truly doomed.
"Lucas! Please, just one signed headshot of Leo Vance!"
"Lucas, you're the best! My roommate is a huge Gojo fan, she said she'd set me up with her sister if I get her a signed photo. Her sister looks like a young Natalie Portman, I'll give you her Instagram!"
Lucas looked at the swarm of juniors and seniors. He deeply regretted his earlier boast. He had confidently vowed that getting Leo's autograph would be a piece of cake. But he was thinking of a handful of signatures, not a literal mountain of them.
Chloe Vance and Ava sat nearby, watching the spectacle with varying degrees of amusement. Ava even decided to twist the knife.
"Hey, Lucas," she whispered, leaning in. "You better keep a few of those for me. I want to wallpaper my bedroom with them. If you don't, I'm telling everyone you're the one who leaked the premiere date."
Leo's Penthouse, West Hollywood.
"Wait... what?"
Bella Brooks (Nobara) stared at Leo, her jaw dropping. She turned to look at Riley Evans for confirmation. "You're telling me Leo picked us? Not Julian Thorne?"
Riley's dark eyes flickered toward Leo. Seeing that he wasn't planning on denying it, she nodded. "Yeah. Leo hand-picked every single one of you. He even fought the studio heads on some of the casting. I was in the room."
Riley wasn't a fool. After spending so much time as Leo's assistant, she had realized that Leo's connection to Lauren Vance and the upper management of Vance Media was anything but "ordinary."
Leo didn't bother hiding it anymore. "You could say I had a vision for the crew. I'd seen some of your smaller theater work and indie clips; I knew you were the right fit for the roles."
"Thank you, Leo," Maya Lane (Mai Zen'in) said softly, looking a bit reserved. She was a senior at the UCLA film school, just preparing for her final internship when this role dropped into her lap. Leo had personally handled the paperwork to ensure her role counted as her graduation credit. To her, he was a savior.
"Don't be so formal," Leo laughed, noticing her nerves. "Just treat me like the jerk you thought I was before we started filming."
He leaned back, his expression turning serious. "Actually, since you're all here... I'm establishing my own production company in a few weeks. I'm looking for talent who aren't afraid of 'untested' genres. Maya, would you be interested in signing with me?"
Maya was stunned. Her heart warmed at the offer. "Leo... give me forty-eight hours? I'm just finishing up my degree and things are a bit chaotic, but I'm incredibly grateful."
"Take your time," Leo said. "Being cautious is a good trait in this business."
"What about me? Can I sign?!"
Bella Brooks practically threw her hand in the air. She wasn't overthinking it. She'd started as a commercial model and had been struggling to find any acting work for six months before Leo found her. Her current "management" was a bottom-tier agency that didn't even return her calls.
"Of course," Leo smiled.
Bella excitedly grabbed an orange from the table, peeled it, and offered a segment to him like a devoted subordinate. "Boss! Have some fruit! I'm in! My current contract expires in three days anyway!"
Jade Lane (Maki) looked at the two of them, bewildered by how fast the recruitment was happening.
"Jade? What about you?" Leo asked, chewing on the orange.
"My contract with my current agency still has seven months left," Jade said with a hint of regret.
"No problem," Leo replied. "I'll wait. When you're ready to move to a real studio, the door is open."
While they were talking business, a massive wave was surging across the internet.
The trending topics on X and Instagram were entirely dominated by Gojo Satoru. Despite Leo not even having an official Tiktok account yet, five of the top ten trending sounds were clips of his "Infinite Void" dialogue.
[Global Trend #1: Gojo takes off the blindfold, the most beautiful man in fiction?]
[Global Trend #2: Thorne's 'Masterpiece' or Leo's 'Visions'? The Credits Mystery.]
[Global Trend #3: JJK Episode 4 hits 30,000 popularity points in record time!]
The data was undeniable. Just two hours after Episode 4 premiered, the "Heat Index" on Global Stream hit 31,520, only a sliver away from the all-time record of 33,600.
Total viewership across all platforms had exceeded four billion. On average, every episode was pulling over a billion views. In the history of streaming, no show had ever dominated the cultural conversation so thoroughly.
Global Stream HQ.Executive Suite.
The Marketing Manager, Simon Miller, sat in his office, sipping a coffee while watching the Episode 4 fight for the third time. He was feeling pretty good about himself, until his phone buzzed.
It was Mark Harrison, the CEO of Global Stream (and his cousin).
"Cousin? Is something wrong?" Simon answered, his smile faltering.
"I told you not to call me 'cousin' at the office, Simon," the voice on the other end was cold.
Simon straightened up. "Sorry, Mr. Harrison."
"I'm calling about Jujutsu Kaisen," Harrison said. He was also watching the show on his monitor. "I'm looking at the backend reports. You're the one who signed the deal with Leo Vance for the 7:3 revenue split?"
Simon's heart skipped a beat. "Yes, sir. We saved eighty million on the upfront licensing fee! I thought it was a steal!"
There was a long, terrifying silence.
"You idiot," Harrison finally said. "We didn't save eighty million. We just gave Leo Vance a billion-dollar blank check. Do you have any idea how much seventy percent of the backend is worth on a billion views per episode?!"