Abstract The current consensus on the formation and evolution of the brightest cluster galaxies is that their stellar mass forms early ($z$ ≳ 4) in separate galaxies that then eventually assemble the main structure at late times ($z$ ≲ 1). However, advances in observational techniques have led to the discovery of protoclusters out to $z$ ∼ 7. If these protoclusters assemble rapidly in the early Universe, they should form the brightest cluster galaxies much earlier than suspected by the late-assembly picture. Using a combination of observationally constrained hydrodynamical and dark-matter-only simulations, we show that the stellar assembly time of a sub-set of brightest cluster galaxies occurs at high redshifts ( $z$ > 3) rather than at low redshifts ($z$ < 1), as is commonly thought. We find, using isolated non-cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, that highly overdense protoclusters assemble their stellar mass into brightest cluster galaxies within ∼1 Gyr of evolution – producing massive blue elliptical galaxies at high redshifts ($z$ ≳ 1.5). We argue that there is a downsizing effect on the cluster scale wherein some of the brightest cluster galaxies in the cores of the most-massive clusters assemble earlier than those in lower mass clusters. In those clusters with $z$ = 0 virial mass ≥ 5 × 1014 M⊙, we find that $9.8{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ have their cores assembly early, and a higher fraction of $16.4{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in those clusters above 1015 M⊙. The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect and confirm our prediction in the near future, and we discuss the implications to constraining the value of σ8.